TriNymphs
by Gibsos
Summary: A set of triplets enrolled in Hogwarts, but what happens when they realize they each have a type of magic well beyond the range of normal students? And what will happen when the Deatheaters find out how powerful they could grow? *Do not read - no really.
1. Back At The Start

TriNymphs - Chapter One - Back At The Start

"Come on! We're burning day light here!" Alexandria screamed at her sister.

"Figures," She breathed. Of course Alex would be impatient for me to get up instead of concerned, she thought to herself. But she got up and ran after her brother and sisters anyway.

Alex kept trying to trip her again, she was getting really mad at her, but then Alex ran into a tree. That made Chelsea, the sister she had been trying to trip, feel better. Alex was the one who liked the stupid forest so much, you'd think she would know to look out for trees, thought Chelsea.

But then again, they were all five at the time...

They finally saw the clearing up ahead, Lyssa (their other sister) and Chelsea both sped up. It was so...dark in the forest... And cold.

Alex took her time, she liked the stupid, dark, cold, forest.

Their little brother was already running pretty fast... For a five year old anyway. But he was still the farthest behind.

"And you were telling me to hurry up!?" Chelsea, who was way ahead now, yelled back to Alex. She was really looking forward to gloating when she got to the clearing first.

Lyssa blinked at her "You could just... Not care about it you know..." Chelsea made a mental note to poke her later. Hard. When she wasn't expecting it.

Lyssa got to the clearing about five seconds before Chelsea did. She walked to the middle then froze, Chelsea ran backwards the last few steps and shouted back to Alex, "You're last so you have to hug the kid in our class who picks his nose!" Alex looked happy about that...

Did she like like that kid!?!?

She started walking backward toward Lyssa, who still hadn't really moved... She wondered to herself what was wrong with her sisters.

But then she couldn't move either... Maybe it wasn't her fault... This time...

Then Alex caught up to the two. She obviously didn't care that they couldn't move. Chelsea hoped to herself that she would get stuck too, served her right, she thought.

She did get stuck. One blink later and everything went black for a second. But then they were somewhere else. Chelsea thought it felt off, like she wasn t really there, or like it was a dream.

Her senses seemed somehow distorted.

All three sisters were there, in front of some kind of house... There was a blue spot far ahead of them that Chelsea guessed was a pond. There was a woman walking towards the sisters. She was dressed in a toga-like dress with very draped, flowing material.

She was quietly, but intensely, chanting something.

Chelsea wondered what she was talking about.

Chelsea blinked, then suddenly they were in a completely different place. She could see and hear better, but it wasn't completely normal yet. Her sisters weren't in sight.

She was worried about them, but as she was only five, she didn t really think of it as a big deal at the moment. Then she could see and hear perfectly again and saw she was in her room. That was good, she thought. But then some old guy with long blonde hair and a really pointed face came into the room. That s not good, she thought.

He pointed a stick at the girl. She started to laugh at him 'cause it was really small and there was no way he could poke her with it from all the way over there, by the door. He said a weird word... It was like... ob-live-ee-ate.

This was a very comfortable bed, she thought, once she woke up.

Chelsea opened her eyes.

There was some old guy with long blonde hair and a pointed face in the room with her.

"Are you alright, daughter?" He asked.

She didn t think that the old guy was her dad. She didn t think she had ever seen him before.


	2. Food Fight

TriNymphs - Chapter Two - Food Fight (Diclaimer on profile page)

If chocolate icing wasn't so hard to get out of long hair that would have been so perfect! Chelsea reflected to herself, as she attempted to comb it out.

Even some of the deatheaters had joined in. And Draco said that there was no way a deatheater meeting would be fun, even if you-know-who wasn't there. Well, in Chelsea s opinion, throwing cake made it very fun. Besides, Alex slapped her. They were just arguing in the kitchen and she actually slapped her! Chelsea was still outraged, which was much harder to do whilst covered in cake.

So she threw a cupcake at her.

When all the deatheaters came in, she thought they were going to get in trouble. But then they just laughed and joined in...

They sure have been a much more... Alive... Group of people since You-Know-Who disappeared, Chelsea mused.

Except her Dad . He had lectured her for about an hour, for one stupid little food fight. What good were cupcakes if you couldn t throw them at people who slapped you?

She still couldn't believe he was their father... He didn t even lecture Alex, and she was the one who started it. The injustice! Chelsea thought.

At supper the old man was still really mad at her. He was glaring like he thought she was somehow going to pull a pie out of thin air and throw it in his face...

Then there was a knock at the huge window in the dining room... Why would someone knock on the window? Don't most people use doors?

The girls mom flicked her wand at the window to open it. Three owls flew through, into the dining room. One landed in front of Chelsea and the other two landed in front of her sisters, they each had letters tied to their leg...

They all untied their owls, who took off as soon as they were relieved of their letter. One stopped to steal some of Melissa (Lyssa s) sausage.

The letters were from Hogwarts.

They simultaneously opened their envelopes and quickly scanned the letters.

I got in! they each celebrated.

They had expected to get in, since they were all supposedly a part of an ancient wizard family, and could each do some spells already. But they were ecstatic to finally have gotten accepted!

They each looked toward their sisters. They were all smiling, everyone of the three had gotten in.

Chelsea dragged the other two off their chairs and away from the table, they all joined hands and started dancing in circles. Kind of like how people do when they re playing ring around the rosie, except they didn't fall because they all can walk properly.

Chelsea and Alex were chanting "We got in! We got in! We got in!," Lyssa was smiling really wide now, it didn t look possible for her smile to get bigger. They were all laughing joyfully.

Their ten year old brother Draco started to cry. He was bawling, "Why didn't I get in!?!"

Alex turned to him, "You didn't get in because you're ten idiot. You still have another year." He stopped crying for a minute, then started to grin when he realized the school hadn t rejected him.

He joined our circle and re-started the chanting, except he sung "I get to go next year!"

The father of the four took Chelsea to one of their many living rooms after supper. She sat down on the couch farthest from the one he was sitting on. He hadn't exactly wanted to sit near her anyway, though, because he sat in a corner too. Though... That might have been more out of self preservation then anything else, because if he hadn't he probably would have gotten torched.

"You are not going to Hogwarts."

The couch closest to Chelsea burst into flames. She was automatically angry, as she was still in the mind frame of parents word is law . She hated when he told her what she could and couldn't do, even if he was supposedly her father. Blood tests could be tampered with...Right? Besides, she really wanted to go to Hogwarts.

"This is exactly why, if you got mad while you were there then someone would get lit on fire." He wasn't good at lying. He was smiling evilly, he loved that I was getting angry, she thought to herself. She was probably proving his point by getting as pissed off as she was. It wasn t especially angry for anyone else, but it was angry for her, which was enough to light random furniture on fire. "Or that's my story anyway," he cackled, proving that what Chelsea had just thought to herself was true, and he was just an ass.

That made her more angry.

The rest of the room burst into flame and Lucius God-For-Saken Malfoy ran from the room, still laughing at his daughters , but unable to stand the heat.

A woman in a leather motorcycle jacket and jeans, with goggles on her head appeared in the room, she looked to be in her twenties. Chelsea was still too angry to really pay much attention to her though. She put her hand on Chelsea s forehead, it felt like ice, but it was calming in a way. She shoved the thought of not going to Hogwarts from her mind and focused on the strange woman.

She had a slight accent, it was Romanian Chelsea guessed. "My name is Vampira," She spoke, "Concentrate on putting out the fire, quickly; before anyone finds you."

She was pale. Her face was round, she had dark brown hair that framed her face.

Chelsea closed my eyes and just stood there for a minute, concentrating on the fire being gone, and it left. Whoever she thought was going to find them, Chelsea didn't quite fancy finding out. When she opened her eyes the fire was completely gone.

The woman waited to make sure Chelsea was okay and not angry anymore, another fire wasn t what she wanted right now. She asked, "Now what is so wrong, to make you lose your temper like this?"

"It doesn't really take much to make me lose my temper," Chelsea whispered. She was a little intimidating. Vampira stood, confused for a minute, then realized why I was so quiet.

She backed away, then asked again.

She hesitated for a minute, Vampira smiled encouragingly at her. Chelsea took a deep breath in preparation for her outburst, "Have you ever heard of Hogwarts?" she continued without waiting for the nod that was coming, "Well me and my sisters all got our acceptance letters tonight, well a few hours ago actually, and my, supposed, father says I can't go!" she rushed, without taking another breath.

"Your...supposed father? Why do you call him that? Tell me the whole story, if you will," She asked.

Chelsea told her everything she could think of as fast as was possible, she must have gotten the order mixed up at some point; but it was nice to just complain, and rant to someone. She was actually listening, Chelsea could tell.

She got all the important parts in anyway. She had started at the very beginning, telling her about her and her sisters not remembering anything that happened to them from before they were five, and that Lucius had said that they fell off his friends boat and that had given them all amnesia.

Chelsea told her that he liked his son the best, but that he hated her more then either of her sisters, she didn't know why, but it was true.

Vampira had already seen her control fire, but she included that anyway.

"I think my husband may be able to help..." She was talking slowly, then she seemed to reach some kind of conclusion in her head. She nodded, at no one, then turned quickly. She faced the place where she had first appeared, and Chelsea realised for the first time that there was a hole in the wall now.

She don't think she made it... The fire had been in the middle of the room and besides, on the other side of the hole wasn't one of the Malfoy's many living rooms, like there should be, it looked like a town.

The sky was a mixture of dark orange and blood red. Vampira was facing a the hole, looking through it at a building on the other side.

She turned to Chelsea and held out her hand to the little girl, "My husband will be able to help you get to Hogwarts," She smiled as she spoke. After she thought for a few seconds Chelsea took her hand and they walked through the hole together.

It closed behind them and Chelsea had no way to get back.

Vampira would not look at her, she found it so frustrating.


	3. Mini Arsonist

TriNymphs - Chapter Three - Mini-Arsonist (Disclaimer on my profile)

Vampira, who had appeared after Mr Malfoy told Chelsea she couldn t go to Hogwarts, was starting to walk away. The hole that she had walked through with Chelsea led to a strange town. The hole had closed once the two walked through it, trapping Chelsea in some unknown space. It made her nervous to be completely alone there so she hurried to catch up to Vampira.

They had come out on the corner of a block in the middle of a big city. The buildings looked human-made, but the sky was orange and red. Vampira was a very fast walker, Chelsea had to run to catch up with her. Once Vampira realized she was so far behind, she slowed down enough for her to catch up.

At the end of the block Vampira took a left, leading Chelsea through the city.

By the end of the next block, she had caught up to Vampira. They turned right. Then turned left. Then right. Then left.

The industrial buildings were turning into apartment blocks as they got into the residential area of the city. Random empty lots and small businesses stared showing up.

Finally they stopped in front of an old Victorian styled brick apartment building. Vampira slid a skeleton key out of her pocket, opened the door, and picked up her triathlon worthy speed as if there had been no pause.

After climbing about five staircases, they entered an apartment. There was a pile of shoes next to the entrance way, much less elegant then the heels she was wearing now, that piled high over the rack in the side of the hallway that was supposed to hold them. They even fell into centre of the hall and into the next room.

The entranceway hall was only about four steps or so. Then there was an archway on either side of them, both led to other rooms.

To the left of the pair was a table overloaded with clothes. The walls were bright purple, as opposed to the egg-yolk yellow of the hall. Next to the table was a stand with an old worn violin resting on it.

Chelsea turned to Vampira and saw her looking at the room to the right of them, so she turned to see what she was looking at.

Sitting on the beige couch of the other room was a man with intensely black hair which his pale skin greatly contrasted with. He was pale to the point it didn't look like an actual skin colour. He was lying straight across the couch on his back, holding a book in the air in front of his face.

Vampira didn't say anything, and the man didn't make any movement to make it seem like he knew they were there. Vampira just stood there staring at him, while he laid on the couch reading a worn paperback book.

Finally, after what seemed like five hours or so to Chelsea, but probably wasn't as she was very impatient. The man just snorted and threw down the book, where it landed, face down, with a dull thud, open on the page he had been reading. "Are humans are so painfully self obsessed that they would actually think we would travel all the way from the underworld just to drink their blood? That's disgusting. This book makes me sick every time I read it."

Vampira laughed, one bitter laugh, then started to talk, "Dear," She said. "I need your assistance with an issue," then she turned to smile at me.


	4. Sorting Fun

TriNymphs - Chapter Four - Sorting Fun

The train was pulling away from platform 9 , the sisters had had to run after it, away from their little brother (who was still complaining that he couldn't go yet) and their parents. They had luckily already put their trunks on the train. When they got to their compartment another new student, a girl named Katie Bell, had joined them. She was a big Quidditch fan, so was Chelsea.

It was sickening, Chelsea had been gone for a little over a month. She just disappeared! And as far as the sisters knew, there had been absolutely no effort whatsoever by their parents to find her. Mrs Malfoy was worried, but Mr Malfoy refused to look for her, or to let her look for her. He obviously couldn't have cared less.

Draco even cared a little, that was abnormal for him. Vastly, abnormal.

* * *

"Gryffindor!"

Katie, white as a sheet a minute ago, had just gotten sorted into Gryffindor. It was evidently the house she had been hoping for, because the colour rushed back into her face and she skipped over the corresponding table. Her smile couldn t have been bigger. A few students later and...

"Black, Alexandria."

Lyssa had guessed Alex would be sorted into Slytherin, she was the only one of the sisters whose personality even slightly resembled their Slytherin parents .

"Slytherin!" The hat roared.

She was right, it was really too bad for Alex though, that we had our mothers maiden name. If the Slytherins knew that they were Malfoy s she would be honoured, or at least feared, by some others.

"Black, Chelsea."

There was silence. Obviously, no one stepped forward as she was missing. The teacher, McGonagull, who was reading off the names looked around, "Black, Chelsea!" She called sharply, then looked towards Alex at the Slytherin table, "She s your sister correct?" Alex's face completely drained of colour, there was no way she was going to talk in front of so many people, so, enter Lyssa.

"Professor, our sister disappeared a month ago, she isn't here."

"A first," she said, then looked back toward her paper, "Black, Melissa."

Lyssa could feel her heart beating. She was seeing in stills. It was odd, she thought. She got to the three-legged stool and sat down. The hat was lowered onto her head, then:

"Ah, easy," a voice whispered in her ear, then the hat yelled, "Gryffindor!"

The hat was lifted off her head. She walked over the Gryffindor table happily, and sat next to Katie, thinking that she must have looked absurdly like her on the way over. Her face had also gone white until she had been sorted, then all the colour rush back. It was disconcerting.

The sorting eventually ended, and the plates filled with food. It was almost like magic, she thought, then realized it obviously was, and felt like an moron.

Katie was sitting next to a pair of red haired twins with freckles. Those three and the twins friend Lee got into a big discussion about Quidditch until the deserts came out, while they were eating Lyssa started talking to a girl named Alicia Spinnet, who was also a big Quidditch fan. She hoping to make the Quidditch team that year, but thankfully, she didn't feel the need to talk only about that.

She asked her about the courses at Hogwarts, the Malfoy s hadn't discussed it much with the triplets, though they talked to their little brother about it constantly. Alicia said that until third year, everyone just took Transfiguration, Potions, Defence Against the Dark Arts, Herbology, and Charms, but in third year, next year for her, students got to choose two of their subjects.

At desert, while everyone was loading their plates with pudding, Katie was left out of the conversation because the twins and Lee we listing all the pranks that they were going to attempt that year, and spit balling new ideas... Also spit balling the Slytherins, Katie didn't join them, only because she didn't want to get beat up right after she had finally gotten to Hogwarts. The other three were, by the sounds of it, having a contest to see who could cause the most trouble on the first day of classes.

They were measuring the amount of trouble by how many detentions they got. Whoever got the most, won.

After desert, Dumbledore made his speech, telling everyone to have a good year, and stay out of trouble, he looked right at the twins and Lee when he said that. Dumbledore listed few notices from the caretaker, Filch, about which items had been put off limits this year. Again, he looked towards the two Weasley s and their friend, then all the students went to bed.

Lyssa just barely caught the password, then everyone went to bed. The boys up one staircase, the girls up the other. Lyssa went to her new dorm, which she would be sharing with three other girls. She feel asleep right away, but her last thought before she drifted off was that it would have been the perfect day if Chelsea had been there to annoy and quarrel with Alex.


	5. Sir!

TriNymphs - Chapter Five - Sir! (Disclaimer on profile page)

So while Chelsea was off with Vampira, Melissa and Alexandria were at Hogwarts going to classes. Or at least, Lyssa was. Alex had ditched her Transfiguration class when Prof McGonagull had yelled at her for sleeping in class. So she said something very rude, and the Prof sent her to solitude, (meaning detention) or that's where she would have been if she hadn't ditched on the way. She was currently sitting under the tree next to the lake. Being bored out of her mind.

'...This is boring,' she thought, ' ...there's nothing to do ...why doesn't anything interesting happen here? It's a goddam school of magic... I miss Skye,' Skye was a neighbour of the Malfoys, and Alex's best friend. Her family were muggles, but very rich and important. Not to wizards of course, just to other muggles.

Thinking of her friend reminded her of a game they used to play. They called them randomness wars. How the game is played, is you take turns saying random, made up words. Whoever gives up first, loses. Alex started to play the game in her head, out of lack of anything better to do.

'...Garle ...Freedge ...Fertgle ...Jahmen ...Schreen ...Kleenster...

Five minutes later, just as Alex was starting to give up and mentally complain about how bored she was again, she disappeared off the Hogwarts grounds in a flash of yellow light with purple polka dots.

'That was stupid,' thought Alex, 'I mean purple polka dots!?' How very five-year-old. Whoever just flashed polka dotted lights in my eyed has some damn serious problems,' As you may have been able to tell, she hadn't noticed she had disappeared from Hogwarts, so she continued her tirade, 'either that or they have no social life, and a pretty sad amount of free time to make a light like that,' And so she continued, but we'll skip that for now.

* * *

'Uhm, sir?'

'What is it Johnson?'

'There was an apparation into a muggle arcade in Whales.'

'In front of the muggles!?!'

There was a man in the ministry who had been dubbed as 'Sir' to all employees, even some of the people with a higher position then him. Yes, that was how scary he was. He was kind of a foreman. The foremen did rounds around all the departments, currently Sir was at the improper use of magic department, with an angry red face and a twitching eye.

'Also, the witch who apparated there is only eleven, from our records she hasn't learnt to apparate, she's a Slytherin first year at Hogwarts.' Continued Johnson.

Oh, look, a vein in his forehead is popping. If Johnson had been paying any attention to his foreman, he would have been one of two things. Scared into the foetal position, hyperventilating, or in the foetal position, holding his sides from overdose of laughter. Then, in an icy tone that indicated that your death would be very soon and very painful if he didn't like what you said next, Sir hissed, 'So how do you think she learnt to apparate, and why didn't those useless-ass muggles notice someone apparently popping into existence next to them? Hm?'

At this tone, Johnson turned to face sir, and effectively moved into the foetal position in record time. Sir didn't like weird things, unless they turned out to be good for him.

'I ...Umm ...Err ...Uh ...I-I don't know ...Where she ...learnt ...that ...Sir. And... May-maybe ...the muggles are just ...Uhm ...stupid?'

Unfortunately for Alex, the ministry wasn't the only mass organization that had learnt of this phenomenon.

And unfortunately for Sir, judging for which organization it was, there was no way that this would turn out well for him.


	6. Nutcase

TriNymphs - Chapter Six - Nutcase (Disclaimer on my profile)

Alex was walking around outside the arcade that she had somehow appeared in. After having topped all the high scores on the games there was nothing left to do and she started to wonder how she was going to get back to school. She was walking through some random ally way, when she got the feeling she was being followed.

Alex turned around really quickly, trying to surprise whoever it was, and saw ...nothing ...nothing whatsoever. Well, she did see something, just nothing that seemed to be stalking her.

There was a teenage girl looking out of a window, practically melting at the sight of the guy at the window across from hers. There were a few potted, and not so potted, plants outside of someone's back door. A few feet away from Alex there was a little kid trying to ride his tricycle. A few feet away from him there was a group of about three teenage boys planning how to beat up the little kid, then there was the little kid again, who was now peddling away as if his life depended on it. Too bad if two of those teenagers stood shoulder to shoulder they could completely block his path.

Alex started to walk away again, but then she heard a sort of dragging noise behind her. She turned around and saw that the little kid was gone, hidden from view by two of the teens. The guy in the window was now flirting with the girl in the other window. But aside from that, everything was the same, so she continued. But before she had taken another step, the dragging noise started again. Alex turned around, yet _again_and noticed scratch marks on the ground.

She walked over and bent down to inspect them, feeling very much like someone on some bad cop show, or CSI (both of which see had seen having had a muggle best friend). The spot where the marks had presumably started was empty. But at the other end was one of the potted plants. It was a sunflower, and was therefore facing the direction of the sun, which also happened to be the way Alex had been heading before (where are a good pair of sun glasses when you need 'em, huh?).

Alex sat down, back against the brick wall of a house and tried to figure out exactly what had happened to her in the last twenty-four hours.

1. she had gotten kicked out of Transfiguration class.

2. she had seen a purple polka-dotted light.

3. she had appeared at an arcade.

4. she was going to miss supper.

5. she got the feeling she was being stalked.

6. under further inspection, there was nothing there whatsoever.

7. there was a drag mark,

But who really cared about some stupid plant?

Alex was pondering through events two to four, the stalking thing immediately taking a back seat to her supper. Unfortunately, Alex was not the kind of person to have a good temper. Or, it was unfortunate for the sunflower at least, because it was the nearest thing to her, so it got kicked. It's clay pot broke, and the dirt fell out.

As you may imagine, the sunflower was not exactly pleased at this. So it leaned up and was about to damn well tell Alex so, when she suddenly yelled, and cut off what the sunflower was about to say.

"WHOLY SHIT THE SUNFLOWER IS ALIIIIIVE!!"

All down the street you could hear Alex's yell. Teenage boy and Teenage girl were very much occupied with making out with each other, thank you very much, to notice her screeching. But two of the boys in the group that were going to beat up the tricycle kid walked over, leaving the lone guy to beat up the kid himself.

"Of course it's alive you idiot, if it wasn't it would be wilted." The guy #1 nodded.

"SHUT UP JACKASS! IT'S ...Uhm ...Head-like-thing ...Yeah ...IT _MOVED! _THAT IS NOT NORMAL!"

The guy sighed and made a face that people do right before making a speech, "...Okay, first of all, _ouch_!" He cringed, moving his hand to his ear. _"_Second of all, that is a sunflower. Sunflowers move their 'head' toward the sun, so it's normal. That's why they're called _sun_flowers." The guy seemed to enjoy showing off his knowledge of all things sunflower. The other guy just stood there, and occasionally nodded.

"But ...But the _pot _moved. I don't care what you say, _that _is NOT NORMAL!"

And then another guy from the group came over, "Hey! You're that girl who escaped from the mental hospital!" he said gleefully, holding out a poster.

Occupying most of the poster space was a picture of Alex, in the space under that, it said Girl Escapes From Mental Hospital.

Alex was appalled, "...So ...now what?"

"What do you mean?"

"Well, there seems to be a reward for turning me into this alleged mental hospital. Which frankly, I do _not _get, as I've never set foot in a mental hospital in my _life._ So are you going to turn me in to these people and get the reward, or will you go away and let me try and get back to school in peace?"

* * *

"The girl has been spotted by two muggle boys. My sources are telling me that they are deciding whether to turn her in or not."

"How reliable is this source?" pondered one of the men in the group of deatheaters.

"Most reliable. Nice idea to put up posters saying she had escaped from a mental hospital, by the way, Sampson."

"What have they decided?" interjected another deatheater, breaking up the coming make-out session between the couple before it started.

"I don't know, my source said they hadn't decided yet."

"Make sure they turn her in to us."

"But I can't, the ministry can track spells used on muggles."

"If you can't get her, then you're no use Gregory. AVADA KEDAVRA!"

There was a flash of blinding green light (which unfortunately had no polka-dots) and Gregory Millar fell to the floor, dead. Sampson, his boyfriend, restrained himself from going onto his knees to weep over his fallen lover.


	7. Gregory and Sampson

TriNymphs - Chapter Seven (mini-chapter) - Gregory and Sampson (disclaimer on my profile, quote refernce listed beneth)

_--No matter how often he is cut down,_

_the Green Man will always live again._

_-- He is the life force of the plant kingdom, found all over Europe, sometimes with other names: The Old Man of the Woods, Jack-in-the-Green, or The Leaf King._

_-Fantasy Encyclopaedia, pg 37_

**Five Days Later**

_**The Daily Prophet**_

**-Family Notices**

_-- Gregory Millar, boyfriend of Sampson Lee, was found in a temporarily vacant house in Hogsmeade. Both Millar and his boyfriend are known deatheaters who have eluded capture. His body was thrown on the floor with only minimal attempts to cover the murder. _

_The room, and entire house was free of any evidence of anyone being there, and it is believed that he was murdered elsewhere. When found, the Azkaban eluder, was believed to have been dead for five days already, possibly longer. Ministry workers have refused comment, though they had no problem setting dementors on our staff, resulting in the temporary mental break of several of our reporters, including Rita Skeeter. Served the old bag right._

_Gregory was a known deatheater and had the darkmark on his arm, however no darkmark was set above the house, squashing the rumours that he was killed by fellow deatheaters._

_The Auror and Magical Law Enforcement departments at the ministry also refused to comment and our remaining reporters were forced to leave, under threat of more dementors._

_--Article by Siena Caine, family notices columnist_

_--__**MISSING**__--Two witch children (11 years old) are currently missing, they are identical sisters, two triplets, and are named Alexandria (Alex) Malfoy and Chelsea Malfoy. _

_Alexandria has been missing for five days, and disappeared on the same day that Gregory Millar was believed to have died. The both the Ministry and we at the Daily Prophet are still unsure as to whether the two incidents are related._

_Alexandria has blue-black, straight, waist-length brown hair, and dark green eyes. She is pale and skinny. Alex went missing off the grounds of Hogwarts, where both sisters are enrolled. She was last seen at a muggle arcade. Any information is welcome. She has been missing for five days. When she disappeared she was wearing a her Hogwarts uniform, and will likely still be wearing it._

_Chelsea has been missing for over a month, she disappeared from her home, Malfoy Manor, the day the Hogwarts letters were delivered and has not been heard from since._

_Chelsea has shoulder length red-brown hair, and dark green eyes. She is pale and skinny. Chelsea has a pierced ears and a birth mark on her left shoulder in the shape of pacman, a character in a muggle video game. (for information on what muggle video games are contact that moron Arthur Weasley)_

_Both girls have been going by their mother's maiden name, Black, and may not answer to the name Malfoy. Parents, Lucius and Narcissa Malfoy, have put up a 200 Galleon reward for information about either child. They are both at home grieving the (hopefully temporary) loss of their children, and have not gone outside, answered their door, or answered to any letters (even howlers), since the second of their children went missing, no matter how hard we tried to get an interview._

_--Article by Siena Caine, family notices columnist_


	8. Uhhuh, Night Class

Sorry it was later, it was exams, then I had a cold. XP So extra long chapter.

* * *

"I say into the mental hospital she goes!" said one guy.

The other guy, the one who wouldn't talk, was disagreeing with him as enthusiastically as you can without saying anything. Which, as it turned out, was pretty enthusiastically.

The guy with the vast knowledge of sunflowers just seemed to want the money. "She could be dangerous! Who knows what they locked her up for!"

Alex had just been standing there without saying anything until then, she wasn't planning on going with them either way, but she couldn't resist the chance to make a person look stupid, "They 'lock people up' in mental hospitals because they're mental, you idiot!"

At this point, Alex and Sunflower guy started arguing, which I will not go into because it is dull. They did not, either of them, think out what they were going to say and as a result got lines thrown into this 'argument' that were blatantly obvious. One of my favourites being, "Cheetos are orange!"

But, hilarious as it was, it had to stop. The almost completely forgotten sunflower had been sitting there being quiet for quite some time now, and had finally gotten bored. So it decided to leave, but hell if it wasn't taking it's cousins with it too!

The sunflower's roots shot up from the spilt dirt, only they did _not _look like they belonged to it. Actually, if you were logical (which so few people ever seem to be) the roots could not have belonged to the sunflower, because the sunflower was in a tiny pot, and the roots were huge. Think Jack and the beanstalk, and the roots are the size of the beanstalk.

The roots grabbed Alex, the quiet guy, and the other potted plants, then dragged them underground.

Surprisingly though, it was a lot easier then you might think. It was like being pulled through water, only they could breathe, and they couldn't see the top, no matter how close they were. They sunk through like the ground wasn't solid.

They came out in a circular, dome shaped room lit by torch light.

A green man, who looked like he had been made out of plants, stepped forward. He had shoulder length he had shoulder length hair, and a beard that looked like it hadn't been combed since it was grown. Or, they looked like hair. If you looked closer, closer then Alex was going to at the moment, you would see that his hair and beard, wasn't actually hair, it was a mess of vines coming out of his head.

"What are you doing in my rooms?" he asked, while taking off his crown and polishing a spot on his robes. His crown was made of some brown metal, with emeralds and sapphires set in it.

When both Alex and Quiet Guy failed to answer, he turned his face to the men behind him, both of who were dressed in knights' armour. Unlike their King, they looked perfectly normal, except for a slight greenish tint to their skin.

"Guards," said the King authoritatively, "Take them to the holding room, the bloody kids can wait, I have more important things to deal with."

------------------------------------------

Thousands of miles away, weeks later, and oh yeah, in one of the circles of hell, though admittedly not one of the deeper ones, Chelsea was finishing a beginners course at night school. Apparently, now that they knew what she could do, there were a lot of things she had to learn before it would be safe for her to get to Hogwarts.

She had her fire summoning ability basics down, as well as making portals, which she learnt, it was possible for a user of any of the five basic elements to make. One of the best parts was that they worked at Hogwarts, and in other warded places, so Chelsea was ecstatic. Vampira was, after all, her first friend, besides her siblings.

For the two months of night school Chelsea had stayed with Vampira and her diplomat husband - Count Dracula, and their son - Dominic. Dominic had died when he was a teenager, so that's how old he stayed whilst in hell. Vampira and Dracula had the young but wise looks the undead species have. Over this time, Chelsea had gotten very well acquainted with Vampira and Dominic, though not the Count, as he was left often and for long amounts of time.

But now, the beginner course was over, and they got back to what Chelsea had been occupied with when they first met, Hogwarts. And this was why Vampira was currently leading Chelsea towards the Counts' barely-entered study.

They entered the study, whenever someone entered the room, their eyes were immediately drawn to the desk across from the door, it was made of mahogany and was very proud. Behind it was a tall-backed brown chair that begged attention. It was one of those chairs that had to belong to an important person; however, it was empty at the moment. The complete left and back walls of the room were dominated by a wall length bookcase, both stuffed with books leaving no place for souvenirs or trinkets from his travels among them.

Along the right wall was a couch faced with two arm chairs. The Count was sitting on this couch reading a book with a look of pure disgust on his face. The cover of the book read 'Count Dracula' and under that 'by Bram Stoker'.

"Not only, is his representation of me completely heinous, but he is a horrible author!" he immediately launched into a rant. "He actually takes the time to describe each and every tree that they are passing by on the carriage ride! This Stoker bastard takes the time to write this infernal book, preaching the evils of vampire society, in the process getting us banned from Heaven, and yet _that _prejudiced bastard got in! Unbelievable!"

The Count spit out Bram Stokers last name like it was something vile; apparently he was very unloved amongst vampires, as Chelsea had found out when she asked Vampira about it, upon learning her husbands' name. Vampira gave him a look, her hands still covering Chelsea's ears, where they had been since the first curse.

Dracula just seemed to notice her, and had the grace to look, at least slightly, embarrassed that he had sworn in front of an eleven year old. But he cleared his throat and continued like this, "Vampira has told me about your problems about getting into Hogwarts, and we can fix that, not that you should need it much anymore considering you're done the first course."

Did I mention that Chelsea had agreed to come back every few months to take more advanced courses?

"What, you're going to threaten my parents?"

"Yes. The locals have taken to you and a lot of them have agreed to help out, they rarely get the chance to go back up to that circle anyway."

"...Cool."

Which was why, a half hour later Chelsea was back at Malfoy Manor, with about fifty inhabitants of hell, and she was finally facing off her 'Father'. Who, by the way, had strutted into the room about ten minutes after they had gotten there. And then screamed and ran away, they hadn't exactly rung the doorbell to get in.

He peaked around the corner again about twenty minutes later. Vampira and the Count stepped forward. "We have heard that you aren't letting our friend Chelsea here," he gestured to Chelsea, "go to Hogwarts. You may want to re-think that." It was said in an intimidating, threatening voice. And was promptly complied with. They did, after all have a small army behind them.

Lucius was forced to write a note to Dumbledore, for good measure, and he feinted immediately after. The citizens of hell returned to their town, except for Vampira and Dracula. They, along with Chelsea of course, portalled to Hogsmeade. They could have gone straight to the castle, but no one thought it was a good idea to show everyone that they could do that.

It was in the middle of the first Hogsmeade trip of the year and the gates were open so they could just walk in. They headed to Dumbledores' office to show him Lucius' note and get Chelsea finally enrolled. Unfortunately, the gargoyle got in their way, so they had to wait for a teacher to walk by, as they still didn't think it was a good idea to portal in Hogwarts.

After only a half hour Minerva McGonagull passed by. "Excuse me miss," the Count was using a dazzle spell on her, "would you kindly tell us the password to the headmasters' study? We have some business to discuss with him."

McGonagull looked flustered, an effect of the dazzle spell Dracula did. "L-lemon drops," she sounded confused, but no one took any notice. We all turned and walked up the staircase, not waiting for it to spin to the top. Chelsea knocked on the door.

They heard Dumbledore say "enter," so they entered.

Dracula walked up to Dumbledores' desk, "This is Chelsea Black, she was supposed to have been enrolled in this school a month ago, she was taking a course at another school, it resulted in her being late. I apologize that she couldn't have taken it earlier. We have a letter from her father, he has agreed to let her attend this school."

Dumbledore took the note, from the look on his face you'd never guess how bizarre it was for a student to turn up to term over a month late. "Very well Miss Black," he said, "Let's just get you sorted," and he pulled the sorting hat from amongst it's perch on one of the many shelves on the perimeter of the room, surrounded by metallic instruments, clicking and shooting out clouds of smoke. "When the sorting hat is placed on your head, Miss Black," said Dumbledore, recalling her attention from one instrument that was humming a particularly interesting tune, "the sorting hat will decide which house you would be best suited for."

And the sorting hat was placed on Chelsea's head. "A shame," the hat said. It sounded like it was whispering in her ear, but by now, Chelsea had had more experience with the unusual then the standard first year being sorted, and she was mostly unfazed. "If you had been here at the beginning of the year you could have heard my song. You are the girl that was missing then?"

"Uhm... Yes... I suppose."

"Anyway, to the sorting. You could do well in Gryffindor or Slytherin, you have certain qualities of both. You are clever and resourceful, but you are also daring and courageous. You seem to have the knack for getting into trouble that many Gryffindors have, but you have a Slytherin temper as well..."

There was a pause and then... "Slytherin!" The volume of the hat's yell shook the papers on the Headmasters' desk.


	9. Catching Up

TriNymphs - Chapter Nine - Catching Up (Disclaimer on my profile)

The sorting hat was removed from Chelsea's head. "Now that you've been sorted, we have a few other things to discuss." said Dumbledore. Chelsea, Vampira, and the Count were sitting in three chairs facing Dumbledores desk. "At the beginning of term, your sister, Alexandra Black, disappeared off the school grounds. We've looked all over the school, all over Hogsmeade, and all over the surrounding towns and we have not found her."

Chelsea's eyes widened.

"She is also in Slytherin, and will be in the same dorm as you when she gets back. Your other sister, Melissa, is in Gryffindor."

"Is Melissa at least still here?!" Chelsea was starting to panic.

"Yes, she is still here. The Ministry of Magic is tracking down Alexandra, they know she ended up somewhere in Warneford, which is a town not far from here, they're just trying to figure out where she went from there."

There was a very long pause, then eventually a knock on the door.

"Enter," said Dumbledore, "Ah, hello Mr Duecento. This is the Slytherin prefect, he will show you the way to the Slytherin common room, and tell you the password. If ever you forget it the prefects in your house will always know, you can ask one of them. It changes periodically." He gestured toward the Italian boy who had just walked through the door, "Count, Countess, I trust you can find your way out of Hogwarts yourself?" Dumbledore continued.

"Of course Headmaster." Vampira nodded briskly, got up, and left with the Count.

Chelsea followed the Slytherin prefect down the hallway. "The password to the Slytherin common room is basilisk, this is your class schedule" he handed her the schedule and the rest of the trip was marked by complete silence from them both. They got down to the dungeons, took a hard left, and walked up to an empty stretch of the stone dungeon walls. Chelsea couldn't see how he could tell the difference between there and any other part of the wall. "Basilisk."

A stone door, that was evidently hidden in the wall, slid open. The Slytherin common room looked quite welcoming to Chelsea, there were groups of Slytherins circled around tables, playing cards, exploding snap, wizard chess, etc etc. Everyone else had a seat in one of the chairs or couches around the fire. It is after all, very tiring to be so acidic all day, and if Chelsea had been less frantic, she would have gone up to one of the groups to meet her housemates.

The prefect led her past the common room and through a doorway, into a large hallway that veered off in two directions. Mr Duecento, as Dumbledore had called him, pointed to the left, "the girls dorms are off to your left and down the stairs, go through the door with your year written on it, your bed will be the only vacant one," he pointed to the right, "those are the boys dorms," and he walked back toward the group near the fire. The fire light reflected off of his slicked back hair.

Chelsea headed down the girls dorm staircase. It was lined with lanterns, they had been in the common room too, they were glowing green light every six feet or so down the stairs. On the very last landing there were two doors reading 'Second Years' then 'First Years'. Chelsea, of course, went through the one on the right labelled 'First Years'.

There were five green four-poster beds along the far wall of the room, the stone walls had stars painted on them. Chelsea spotted Orion, Draco, Jupiter and it's many moons, Cassiopeia, Cygnus, the Milky Way, Sagittarius, and the Pleiades. Three of girls were huddled in a circle on two of the beds, they looked over when they saw Chelsea.

"Uhm... Alex?" Chelsea recognized the girl who spoke from Malfoy galas, where most of the pure-blood population and a few choice half-bloods got together. Her name was Marsha something-or-other. She wasn't known for being very bright. She had met Alex, Chelsea, and Lyssa many times before and still didn't know that Chelsea had shoulder-length red-brown, and Alex and waist-length blue-black hair.

"No, I'm Chelsea, Alex's sister." Chelsea didn't know the other two and frankly didn't care about them at the moment. She still had a sense of urgency that she needed to find Alex quickly. "Which bed is mine?" she asked.

"Oh, uhm... The one with all the clothes piled on it..." The girl who answered had neon green-dyed hair and jade eyes. "We didn't think anyone else would be in the room."

"Oh, no problem." said Chelsea, she took out her wand - 7.5" Augury tail-feather core, made of willow, flexible - that she got on a trip to Diagon Ally with Vampira just after term started and Ollivanders would be empty. She swished and flicked her wand, said the incantation she had learnt from Vampiras neighbour - a deceased witch - and levitated their clothes off her bed. She smiled insincerely at the girls, who had evidently thought they could convince her to let them keep their clothes there and that she would take up camp somewhere else.

Chelsea jumped on to the bed, wrenching the drapes closed behind her on the pretext of changing into her Hogwarts uniform from her night school one, which she also did, but mainly she was looking for a note. She knew Vampira would get one there, without the other girls seeing her (thanks God for invisibility spells). It was hidden under the pillows.

-C

Me and Dm are searching. We'll know where A is by morning tomorrow, join us when you can so we can go get her.

-V

C for Chelsea - who the note was for - Dm for Dominic, A for Alex, and V for Vampira -who wrote the letter. Vampiras code was laughably easy to crack if you knew everyone. Mind you, why would anyone else be looking through Chelsea's pillows?

So Chelsea, clad in a Hogwarts Slytherin uniform, left the dorms, then the common room, in search of her other sister, Melissa, the only person she really knew at Hogwarts. It was around midday on a Saturday -Vampira thought Chelsea would like time to get 'settled' at Hogwarts, as she put it- so Chelsea headed toward the Great Hall first, in hopes of catching Lyssa mid-meal.

When she found Lyssa, she was having lunch, just not in the great hall. She had taken some toast outside, and was walking around the lake, comforting some girl that Chelsea did not know. The girl was blonde and was crying, but she didn't care, she burst in on them all the same.

"Lyssa!" She had to yell to get their attention, so they wouldn't walk to far away.

"Oh... Oh my God! Chelsea!" Lyssas eyes were bugging out of her head. Chelsea ran up to her and tackle-hugged her before getting really serious. Which, frankly, kind of scared Lyssa, who was not at all used to that happening. Chelsea being serious, that is.

"Some of my friends are tracking down Alex, they'll know where she is by morning. Then I'm going with them when they go to get her, and bring her back here."

"Which friends? How will they track Alex? How are you getting out of Hogwarts?"

"Friends that I met after I left Malfoy Manor, you'll have to meet them sometime," there was a pause, "You're not going to be happy until I explain what happened are you?"

"No," she confirmed.

"Who're you?" Chelsea asked the blonde girl, who she had more or less just noticed.

"I'm Katie Bell... I'm friends with... your sister?" she guessed.

Chelsea nodded, then glanced at Melissa, who confirmed she could trust her. So she started pacing around and rattled off her story in a voice that would have made anyone who has ever ranted before proud to exhibit.

"So right before I disappeared our father told me that I couldn't go to Hogwarts. That I wasn't _allowed._ But he made it really obvious he was just being mean, there wasn't an actual reason. So I got really mad, and then fire started to appear, and then Vampira appeared and got me to put out the fire. Then she made another portal - which is how she got there in the first place - that went back to her town. She lives in the first circle of hell. Just because she is a vampire, so they wont let her in heaven because they think she'll drain someone's blood, even though she didn't when she was alive, and she still doesn't. And there are different levels of hell, depending on how bad you were in life. The first one is the least bad, that's where Vampira and her family lives. But then I had to go to night school because, according to Vampira, I'm a Nymph, she doesn't know which kind but I can control fire and stuff."

She paused to take a breath. "So I had to learn to do that so I wouldn't accidentally set anyone on fire. Then today Vampiras husband, the Count, got together a bunch of his friends and we scared 'father' into letting me come to Hogwarts and he fainted near the end. But then we got here, and met the headmaster, who said Alex was missing so Vampira and the Count left but they put a message on my bed saying that they were tracking down Alex and they would know where she is by morning tomorrow and to join them when they went to get her, so I'm going with them tomorrow and we're gunna bring back Alex so make up an excuse if anybody asks, okay?"

"...O-okay..." that was a lot of information to get in thirty seconds, thought Melissa, feeling a headache coming.


	10. Soul Tracker

TriNymphs - Chapter Ten - Soul Tracker (Disclaimer on my profile)

All the rest of that day Chelsea had nothing to do, she talked idly with Lyssa and her friend Katie, discovering that Katie was also an avid Quidditch fan, and they were both planning to go out for the team the next year, but it wasn't the time to talk about such things. Chelsea was very preoccupied.

The afternoon dragged by and it was eventually dinner, Chelsea couldn't fully appreciate the effect of her first Hogwarts dinner, appearing food and all, as she was planning how to get to Vampiras. She passed that time talking feverishly to her green-haired dorm mate - who was evidently named Eve Saruwatari - and if she had at all listened, she would have learnt that Eve had fled Japan with her wizard father when her mother had learnt who they were and tried to burn them at the stake. And I must say, Eve was most offended that Chelsea took so little interest in her after only knowing her for four hours.

The next day saw Chelsea leaving her new dorm hours before the other girls woke and scouring the staircase for anyone who could see her. It was about four in the morning and no one was thinking of getting up yet, and those who had were at the Quidditch pitch.

So, once she was sure no one could see her, Chelsea portalled into Vampiras living room. "It will be another hour or two until we find her, why'd you get here so early?"

"It was the only time I could without being seen," Chelsea yawned, "any other time and people would have been awake."

"Ahw, is the lil witchy tired?" Dominic asked in his best baby voice and in his five-star fabulous mock-pouting face.

"Yes." Chelsea dramatically collapsed on the couch. Dominic snickered and sat on her stomach, relocating to sitting with her head on his lap when she groaned and pushed him off. "If you're going to sit on me, you need to lose some weight, buddy."

"Shut up and go to sleep." Chelsea glared at him, and he beamed back at her. He didn't find some little kid very scary.

Vampira went back to one of their many offices and continued to track down Alex. She had started in the town of Warneford, where Dumbledore had said the Ministry had last tracked her to. Unfortunately for the Ministry, they didn't have as effective tracking equipment as Vampira and the Count. There were some things that just could not be built in the realm of the living, and this particular tracking device was one of them. Mind you, the Ministry also lacked some information that would have been crucial for finding Alex using that machine.

This machine tracked people by the type of soul they had. There were variations from species, family, birth location, personality, and between muggles and wizards, and etc. So, taking into account the personalities - that were apparently drastically different - (they were like fingerprints, different in for everyone, even triplets) Vampira looked for a soul as close to Chelsea's and Melissa's that she could get, and upon checking who this soul belonged to, found that it was Alex.

A half hour after Vampira found Alex her, Dominic, and Chelsea were heading out to find someone that could help them get to where she was. They would have left earlier, but it took awhile to get Chelsea to wake up. They were headed to a town house across the city to meet an old friend of Vampiras.

This old friend was one of the Pleiades. Tens of hundreds of years ago the Pleiades were seven sisters who were Nymphs. When they died, they were put into the sky as the constellation Pleiades, one of them isn't visible though. They say that one is either Merope, who was shunned for marrying a mortal man, or Electra, mourning the destruction of Troy. Every generation some of the Pleiades are reincarnated, though none of them are born together unless in times of great danger.

This Pleiades was one of the reincarnations of Merope, who had power over the element Earth. Alex was also an Earth Nymph, and just as Fire Nymphs (like Chelsea) are some of the only living things that can portal to hell, there are places only Earth Nymphs can get to as well.

Inside the Earth Pleiades - Aramenta's - house, they were filling her in on the basics of what had happened, then they left. Aramenta made a portal to a place she said only Earth Nymphs, and other Earth elementals could get to.

Vampira had given Aramenta the exact coordinates that she had traced Alex to, so when they walked through the portal they ended up in the room Alex had been in at the time. It was the same room she had first appeared in, circular, lit by torch light. It was actually the Leaf Kings throne room, though Alex hadn't noticed it at the time, Chelsea had rather more time as it was currently empty.

The throne was wicar and made of oak with vines intertwined with the branches, it was tall backed and proud, with emeralds implanted along the top and at the end of both the arms. Aramenta swore quietly. "We're in the throne room, if we're caught in here we're dead meat." she made another portal, "this one leads to a room down the hall, follow me if you don't want to get killed." she hissed, then ran quietly through the portal.

Chelsea looked toward Dominic, who looked doubtful, he had never really trusted her much and this was a little beyond his comfort zone. They both looked toward Vampira who nodded and propelled Chelsea forward, Dominic followed, not wanting to be left behind in such an unknown place.

The room they were in after that had a low ceiling and a receptionist desk, elevator music was playing. The receptionist had a bad perm and glasses that looked like they were from the 70's. "Name," she droned.

"Aramenta Monty" answered Aramenta, as Chelsea suddenly realised why people didn't call her Minty for short.

The receptionist, who was named Isadora if the name plate was to be believed, screeched, "Aramenta!" and ran out from behind the desk to tackle/hug her old friend.

After a few moments of them catching up, and everyone else getting frustrated, save Vampira whose patience was apparently unending. Dominic finally blurted out, "Hello! There _is_ a reason why we're here, remember!" Chelsea, who had wanted to say something, but was slightly creeped out by the receptionist, gave him a grateful look.

Aramenta sighed, "Fine." and rolled her eyes at Dominic, who stuck out his tongue at her. "Izy," she addressed the receptionist, "we're looking for this girls sister, they're two triplets so they look pretty much the same, is she here? Or was she here?"

The receptionist giggled, "she's still here. She's in the backroom with Daniel, you can go see her if you want."

Aramenta looked back to Dominic, "That better?" she asked sarcastically.

"Wonderful."

Isadora led them toward the back room where they saw a guy with shaggy milk brown hair running towards Alex with a wooden sword.


	11. Anything You Can Do, They Can Do Better

Trinymphs - Chapter Eleven - Anything You Can Do, They Can Do Better (Disclaimer on my profile)

Crack! Before anyone else could move the guy with the wooden sword had gotten to Alex, who ducked. His sword hit the post she had been standing in front of and he stumbled backward, Alex swung her own wooden sword at the guys feet. They continued to fight for a minute, then he said something like, "Very good, no openings," in a tone like a teacher who was impressed with their pupil. Which was, after all, what he was. He had to admit, for the short time she had been there, Alex had learnt her swordsmanship very well.

Dominic scoffed, "The Earth folk like to act like medieval royalty, they've even stuck to the same fighting methods. And there you were, all worried over a training session."

* * *

After the eventful first months of school normal classes felt easy, even with Chelsea and Alex as behind as they were. Alex didn't come back until the middle of November. She would only agree to come back after she had learnt to control the powers she had, being an Earth Nymph, as she was.

Melissa was happy for her sisters, learning to do all this new stuff, but couldn't help wondering why she hadn't shown any evidence of new powers yet. But she took comfort in the fact that at least she was well ahead of her sisters in terms of witchcraft, and redoubled her efforts in class.

In the weeks after Chelsea got to Hogwarts she became one of the few Slytherins with friends in Gryffindor. Namely, her sister and Katie Bell, their obsession with Quidditch bringing them together. This--

"Gryffindor are going to be pummelled this match!"

"No. Way. Your keeper is pretty good, but your seeker couldn't catch the snitch if it was the size of the quaffle and the speed of a snail, and frankly I think some of your chasers are on crack."

"Well as long as that Fern girl is chaser you have no chance. She can barely _fly_ let alone score."

--Was what the pre-game discussion of the match consisted of. And really, for Melissa and Alex at least, it was lucky that they'd be beaten up for sitting together. That way they didn't have to endure the other two mocking each other when their respective teams slipped up. Which happened a lot...

Charlie Weasley and one of the Gryffindor chasers had left two years before, and unfortunately all of the chasers and seekers who tried out were awful. Fern Aporro, the Slytherin chaser, dragged down the other two chasers. Luckily for them one of the Gryffindor chasers, Lulu something, dragged their other two chasers down. Which resulted in the score being dead even all game. The game went on for hours until the commentator, Lee Jordan, finally mentioned where the snitch was and both seekers went zooming towards it. No one tried to stop them, they just wanted the game to end.

It was the cleanest game Slytherin had ever played, as they were busy trying to make up for the goals Angelina and Alicia made when Lulu didn't manage to mess them up. The only memorable point was when Fred Weasley and Nikkei Stein, one of the Slytherin beaters, hit a bludger at each other at the same time and had to dive out of the way as they both rebounded back at them.

Katie and Lyssa met Chelsea at the lake after lunch for a post game analysis, which consisted of Katie and Chelsea arguing over whose team sucked most, and Melissa reading a library book.

"Did you see Warrington?! He nearly collided with the goal posts, he's awful!"

"Did you see him two seconds later when he scored? If he's that awful then your keeper must be retarded. And what about your chaser flying away and screaming when the quaffle was passed to her!?"

"Okay, so we have one bad player--"

"--At _least_ two!--" interjected Chelsea.

"--Fine, two. But Slytherin have several."

The bickering continued for about an hour. "Gee, I wonder why Alex didn't want to come..." Lyssa muttered sarcastically.

"Yeah, why is that?" Chelsea mused when she heard her. "Eh, who cares. Anyway..." the analysis continued.

**

* * *

**

It just so happened that Alex had a reason for not sitting by the lake with her sisters and their friend. Not that she would have gone if she hadn't...

Alex had gone to the library with another Slytherin girl in their dorm to do the essay professor Flitwick had assigned them. Or rather, they were in the library trying to convince someone to do their essays for them. They were just trying to decide on who... They _were_ Slytherins after all.

A house partially known for being resourceful.

... What did you _think_ I meant? You thought I was referring to Slytherins being brutes? Why of course not, dear reader.

But unfortunately, no one would do the essay, so Alex and her friend, Holly, had to stay after class with Professor Flitwick. He asked why they hadn't done their homework. They gave an excuse, yada yada, the whole student-teacher-homework rap.

Mind you, it was rather harder to think of an excuse as neither of them had a dog...

Their five minute chat made them late for their next class, Defence Against the Dark Arts. The teacher was Professor Copper. Filling in for Professor Quirrel while he was off gallivanting. Professor Copper was a creepy son-uva-bitch. Fifty years old with a bad toupee, Sage Riven Copper was a Slytherin Alumni, and had been the only muggle born to ever be in Slytherin.

Everyone suspected him constantly getting beaten up in school had resulted in some hardcore brain damage.


	12. No Backup

TriNymphs - Chapter Twelve - No Backup (Disclaimer on my profile)

Alex and Holly showed up five minutes late for their next class, Defence Against the Dark Arts. They entered the class to see a balding, sixty year old man standing at the front of the class. They snuck in unnoticed, but Melissa, who showed up ten minutes later, was not so lucky.

Who would've thought that Chelsea'd be the only one on time for class? Certainly not I.

Lyssa stumbled into the class, her short, mousey brown hair in disarray, and smudges of charcoal on her face.

"Miss... short first year girl... Do you have a reason for being late?"

"Peeves held me up, I'm sorry I'm late Professor," she winced.

"I would expect a five year old to be able to deal with Peeves," Professor Copper scoffed, "Now take your seat." he waited a minute, "Professor Quirrel is off gallivanting across Europe, I'm filling in for him this year. I expect you to call me Professor, Professor Copper, or sir, at all times." He spoke to the new student in his class (Alex) as he looked around the room in a very condescending way. "Now that the late students are all here," he paused to glare at Melissa, Alex, and Holly, "We'll get started."

He turned towards a slimy buck-toothed ogre-looking creature at the front n' centre of the class. "These are Ghouls. They generally live in attics or barns that belong to wizards and why aren't you taking notes?" He scowled, and had to wait while the class got out quills and papers.

**

* * *

**

After class the whole gang (meaning the triplets, Katie and Holly) were walking toward the great hall, as it was lunch. The topic of discussion between the girls, was their Professor. He had not smiled once, or looked anything short of pissed off, the entire class. When they got to lunch they noticed him looking just as, if not more, pissed off, up at the teachers table.

But now that we've established how nasty nasty Professor Copper is, we'll skip ahead a month to Halloween. There was a costume contest, the judges being the head boy and girl and the prefects, as the teachers frankly had better things to do. Or, that was their excuse anyway.

Chelsea dug some of the muggles clothes out of her trunk. It was an hour before the feast and other such merriment educing activities, and she had just decided on her costume. The Malfoys all had muggle clothes in the event that they had to walk down a muggle street without being scrutinized by muggles. So Chelsea put them on, and said she was a muggle.

Alex got out a pleather jacket, jeans, and a t-shirt with a graphic of fleur de lis on it. She put them on, messed up her hair, and said she was a rock star.

Lyssa decided against dressing up, and as she was in a different house as her sisters, she got away from it for once. Though she did have to hide out in the common room all day.

"How dare you not wear a costume for Halloween Melissa!" scolded muggle Chelsea.

"I am wearing a costume." Lyssa said. She was in the school robes, as were all the people who weren't getting dressed up.

"So what are you."

"Well, I decided for this year, I'm going to be a _normal_ person." Considering she was surrounded by children dressed up as fairies and muggles in kilts and swimsuits, it wasn't that hard.

Silence for a minute, as Chelsea stared at Lyssa. Then it was, "Not good enough," and she enlisted Katie's help in dragging Lyssa to another room to change.

Twenty minutes later Katie, Chelsea, and Lyssa finally met Alex and Holly in the great hall. Lyssa was a butterfly, in a green n' glittery jacket with wings.

"Damn, took you long enough to get here." Holly was irritated.

"We had to get Lyssa in a costume," sighed Chelsea, then she poked Lyssa in the forehead.

In the Great Hall, the normal house tables had been abandoned for the night in favour of several regular tables. The ceiling was a very beautiful pink and purple mix, as the sun was just going down, however, it wasn't easy to see that as there were thousands of bats and humongous pumpkins.

They were among the latecomers, and found an empty table just as Dumbledore rose and started talking. "Happy Halloween." he said, then sat down.

One of the house tables remained, though there was no way to tell which one, and as Dumbledore sat down, food suddenly appeared, almost overflowing, on that table, buffet style. The whole left side of this table was dedicated to ice creams, gumdrops, lollipops bigger than most people's heads, and other such Halloween like foods.

Once everyone had sufficiently stuffed their faces, Dumbledore stood again. "The costume contest will start in ten minutes, will the head boy and girl and all prefects that are participating please get ready.

The food on the middle table disappeared and a line formed in front of a rather smaller table that the judges were sitting at.

"C'mon let's get moven'." Holly had to yell over the music that started playing. Like many a Slytherin she had a big ego, therefore she was set on winning the contest. She was dressed up like a muggle movie murderer by the name of Freddy.

They made their way over to the back of the line, Lyssa only waited ten minutes, then left to go talk to some other Gryffindors. This was _not_ her scene.

The rest waited in line twenty minutes to finally get their turn. A Ravenclaw fifth year girl dressed in a medieval ballroom style dress was the winner. After they had to listen to Holly bitching about it. Chelsea and Katie left to go talk Quidditch with some of the other fanatics, Holly wasn't _their_ friend. Why should they have to put up with her?

All in all, it was an awesome party. Like all the Halloween parties at Hogwarts were. But eventually, the night of loud music, and giant pumpkins spewing industrial amounts of candy had to stop, and everyone went back to their common rooms to (at least in the case of the Ravenclaws) have anxiety attacks over the homework that they hadn't had time to do.

Katie and Lyssa were heading back to Gryffindor tower, they were passing through the fifth floor, when suddenly, they heard screaming coming from an unmarked doorway to their left.

"Did you hear that?"

"Course, what d'we do?"

"Go see what it is?"

"Really? Ya think" An apprehensive look came into Katie's eye. "Is it safe. Should we get backup?"

Then the screaming intensified, and they both decided that no, they did not have time to go get backup. Damn.

They opened the door to an old unused classroom with desks stacked up and piled against the wall and heavy dust on the floor. It was empty, but they still heard the screaming. It was louder, but still in a different room. They checked an assortment of class rooms surrounding that one, but still couldn't find anyone.

They were standing in the hall, having already gone through every room on that floor, excluding Professor Coppers office of course, and were trying to figure out what they should do. But then the person, who by the sounds of it was a boy about their age, started screeching "Help me!"

It most definitely sounded like it was coming from the first room, so they went in there again, the air was musty, and the room was cold, and filled with dust and spider webs, and made their skin crawl.

It was dusk, and the room was filled with moonlight. Perfectly creepy, but useless for seeing things. They waved their arms around over their heads, trying to find a chain to turn on a light bulb, but in the end had to settle for a lamp conveniently placed on one of the desks.

They lit it and saw a crisp set of footprints in the midst of the dust. They led to the opposite corner of the room, then there was a clear spot under the desks like someone had crawled under them. Against their better judgement, Katie and Lyssa got down on their knees and started to crawl after them, under the desks.


	13. Floating Heads

TriNymphs - Chapter Thirteen - Floating Heads (Disclaimer on my profile)

They saw a crisp set of footprints in the midst of the dust leading to the opposite corner of the room. Their ears were ringing with the sound of screaming. At the end of the trail there was a clear spot, completely devoid of dust, under the desks. Against their better judgement, Katie and Lyssa got down on their knees and started to crawl under the desks, like it looked like someone else had.

As soon as they got to their knees and the lamp lit the area under the desks, they saw the trail stop suddenly. The screaming stopped. They started to crawl forwards, they hadn't made it past the first desk when they heard the door burst open, rather noisily, behind them. Both Lyssa and Katie bumped their heads on the gum ridden bottom of the desk. Light was streaming into the room, and right in the middle of the doorway, there stood McGonagull.

They started to retreat from their task of finding the screamer, as McGonagull looked pissed off, and the screaming had stopped so it wasn't likely she'd believe anything they told her.

She didn't, and they spent the next twenty minutes being lectured then forcibly placed in their common room, which was entirely unnecessary as they had suddenly gotten tired when they found out it was three in the morning.

Lyssa and Katie were exhausted. When they got back to their dorm room it was four o' clock and classes started in four hours. They were desperate to get any little bit of sleep they could.

Lyssa fell asleep the minute her head hit the pillow. She was greeted in her dreams by a somewhat irate looking woman. She was standing in front of a fountain that spewed water from the eyes of a sad looking woman made out of concrete.

Besides this fountain, there was no sign of civilization having been anywhere near. The irate looking woman was dressed like a Grecian goddess, and was tapping her foot -clad in Grecian footwear- impatiently. She had been waiting for hours.

The impudence, she thought, of this girl to keep her waiting here so long.

She handed her a leather bound book, the cover was dark green except for a triangle in lighter green. It was upside down and, unbeknownst to Lyssa, represented the element water.

As she took the book handed to her, the water in the fountain shot toward the sky in a violent turret. It swirled around then started to shoot towards her. The dream ended when the water hit her and blasted her into the trunk of the old willow tree swaying gently behind her.

She woke up with a start, but was too exhausted still to keep her eyes open. She fell back asleep, only to be tortured all night when the very same dream started again ten minutes later, though this time she kept sleeping when the water hit her and the dream went on infinite loop. She didn't get any rest that night.

Eight floors down in the Slytherin common room, Alex was also having an odd night. It had started with a spot of light on the wall. It was slightly ovular, but had two darker patches just above the middle. Alex stared at this spot as she tried to sleep. She was having difficulties, and had been lying there for hours when she finally started to drift off. But before she could completely leave the conscious world, something started to happen.

The spot on the wall, which had remained exactly the same throughout the hours, started to shift. The edges became sharper, like a picture being put into focus. A woman with long, sleek, hair came into focus. It was now a, quite clear picture of a woman, who looked to be in her twenties. And as Alex stared, unable to look away from the spot, the woman turned and looked back at her.

Alex had always been afraid of something coming to get her in the dark, and so ran over to the light switch once she discovered the fact that she did, indeed, have the power to move.

Holly bolted awake immediately. "Goddamit Alexandria! Turn off those damnable lights and get to sleep," Holly glowered at her. She was not the type of person to be woken up in the middle of the night, under any circumstances.

Alex gave herself a quick scolding in her head, it was just a spot of light, nothing would come of it.

She turned off the light and jumped back into her bed, but was unable to stop herself from checking if the face was still there.

She calmed down when she saw the wall was bare. Then jumped backwards when the face suddenly appeared again, clear as ever.

She wrenched shut the curtains around the bed, which she usually kept open so it wouldn't be as dark. She almost fell out of her bed when the head appeared right next to her own head on the curtain.

She heard the woman's voice in her head, "Beware the Green Man," then the head blinked out of existence, Alex never saw her again.


	14. Insomnia

TriNymphs - Chapter Fourteen - insomnia (Disclaimer on my profile)

Chelsea stepped through a ring of fire into the living room of an Upper East Side apartment in the middle of hell.

"Hey there kid!" Dominic greeted her.

"Happy early Christmas," she grinned. She was too used to being called 'kid' to care.

"Back at ch'ya," they exchanged presents. Chelsea got Dominic and huge bag of honeydukes candy. He had the most severe sweet tooth out of anyone she had met before; unfortunately, there weren't many -if any- sweet shops in that particular ring of hell.

He got her a book; normally she didn't like to read. But it was stuffed full of different spells for fire nymphs. Both Vampira and Dracula were out of town, so Chelsea had to wait to give them their presents. Her and Dominic hung out a couple of hours, then Chelsea had to get back to Hogwarts quickly before one of the other girls woke up and noticed she wasn't there.

She made a portal back to her bed in the common room, making sure not to set the curtains around her bed on fire.

She immediately fell asleep; across the room, Alex was sleeping soundly, having finally relaxed when no floating head showed up on the wall for months. However, eight floors up, Lyssa was not sleeping as soundly as her two sisters.

Ever since Halloween, she had been having the same nightmare every night. Sleep deprivation was making her grumpy and irritable. These days there was a fifty-fifty chance of her going off on anyone who talked to her, if not more. It was quite a change from her normal personality that rarely got mad at anyone. No matter the circumstances.

They all woke up the next morning and went straight for the presents. Chelsea and Alex pounced on theirs, scaring the other Slytherins. Lyssa yawned and started opening hers unenthusiastically, while the other two Gryffindor girls squeed and compared presents.

They went down to the common room, which they had almost completely to themselves. All of the Weasleys were there, but other than that the common room was deserted. Lyssa sat in the corner and pretended to be reading the issue of the Daily Prophet that had been left on the table.

Katie had gone home for the holidays, and Lyssa wasn't friends with any of the Weasleys. But she had been growing more and more sullen and spending more and more time just by herself. Even if Katie or one of her other friends had been there she would still be alone, where she was now.

She got tired of the celebrating and went outside to sit by the lake. She was buried in layers against the stinging cold of December.

After Chelsea and Alex went down to breakfast and noticed Lyssas absence, they went down to the lake with as many muffins as they could carry. "If she wants to sit alone in the middle of the bloody winter and freeze to death, that's not our problem," Alex started complaining the moment the frigid air hit her.

"We're going to keep her company and find out why she's so damn grumpy lately. If you have a problem with it, you can just go sit alone inside," Holly had gone home for the holidays, and the other Slytherin girls were too snobby for anyone else's taste.

"Fine," Alex grumbled as they trudged through the snow to Lyssa, then forcibly made herself look concerned about her when they finally got there. Lyssa did not put up with attitude these days.

"Are you okay?" Chelsea asked, sitting down.

Lyssa grunted out a yes. When her two sisters continued to stare at her she continued, "Haven't been getting any rest."

"For two months," Chelsea asked, surprised, after she quickly traced the grumpy Lyssa back to around Halloween. She nodded.

"How do you _not_ sleep for two months?" Alex asked, amazed.

"I _have_ been sleeping. Been having nightmares every night, when I wake up I'm just as tired."

"That's it," Alex blurted out, "_Nightmares?"_ the other two glared at her.

"I think there are things you can do to not have dreams, like meditation or something... Why didn't you say anything," Chelsea was attempting to be helpful.

"No one asked."

The Christmas feast was uneventful; everyone sat at one table, except for the teachers who remained at their own. There were only about twenty students still at the school.

Lyssa was falling asleep on the table, head slightly falling into her mashed potatoes. For once she didn't have nightmares.

No one bothered to wake her up, especially with her two sisters sitting on either side of her silently beating on anyone who tried. Alex was sick of being told off by Lyssa and figured she might lighten up again once she got some sleep.

The next day Chelsea went and perused the library, in search of a book on meditation for her sister. The books were invariably focused towards magical subjects. She had to tell Lyssa the bad news that there was nothing she could currently do to get some damnable sleep.

This was not good, because at the moment she was snapping at anyone who dared speak to her and rapidly losing weight from stress and night sweats from her nightmares.

The months went past and Lyssa started to look skeletal. She was failing all her classes, even the ones she had previously been the best student in. Her friends distanced themselves from her; she was pretty much left completely alone except for her sisters. Even they left her when the quidditch games were being played.

Lyssa didn't want to go to the pitch were everyone was being all cheerful, so she stayed inside the school. Chelsea, being the die-hard quidditch fan that she was, went to the game then had the post-game discussion with Katie. At that point in time, Alex was just sticking with Lyssa because Chelsea was making her feel awful about it whenever she tried to join the rest of the school in shunning her.

It was the final game of the year and would determine the winner of the school quidditch cup. It was Slytherin against Ravenclaw ("Told you the Gryffindor team wouldn't make it," scoffed Chelsea to Katie) ("Only because Fern what's-her-face messed everyone up, if we had just one other player we'd school you noobs" Katie snapped back.). When the school got back inside, the two sisters went to find Lyssa in the library, after the post-game discussion of course.

They didn't find her in the library or when they looked around the school. She usually kept to the library because people didn't talk as much in there anyway. When they couldn't find her they figured she had gone to her dorm early to try and get some actual sleep.

When they didn't see her at all the next day they knew that something was off.

Chelsea went up to Katie Bell and asked, "Have you seen Lyssa in your dorm the last two days?"

Katie thought for a minute, "No, actually."

Alex and Chelsea went to Dumbledore and told him, they couldn't find Lyssa anywhere. No one had seen her since before the quidditch game. Lyssa had disappeared from Hogwarts.

* * *

Lyssa was standing in her dream, facing a woman who was dressed like the typical Grecian goddess. She had blue eyes with a greenish tint; they stood out from her tanned face. She was standing in front of a fountain of a fae-looking woman crying.

Like always, the woman handed her a green leather bound book with an upside down triangle (representing the element water) on it. The water from the fountain turrets up, does a few circles around in the sky, then dives at Lyssa. Like a vulture.

The woman stands there, looking at her harshly. But this time she speaks, "Fight back!" her voice sounds impatient and harsh, then the water hits her and the dream starts all over again. This time she doesn't speak, but stares at her with growing disdain.

Lyssa finally woke up, having gotten no rest whatsoever. She was in complete darkness, then a man entered the small rectangular room with a lit candle, and she could see. See the dingy, stained, stone walls. There was a leak in the ceiling spilling drops of water onto her bare foot. She was on a metal operating table, restrained. She saw the chains connected to the walls, and had a panic attack when she realised she was in an old dungeon. She screamed, the man smiled, no one could hear her.

* * *

Alex and Chelsea walked towards the forbidden forest, preparing themselves to be attacked. Obviously they would've liked to avoid that situation, but they were preparing for it. They were looking for somewhere they could go and not be seen from the school, the forbidden forest seemed like the perfect place.

Until they remembered that there were apparently werewolves and the centaurs didn't exactly welcome people into their forest either.

They had had to wait outside, hiding, until everyone else went inside and to bed, and they couldn't be seen sneaking across the grounds. While they were waiting, they had been discussing the same thing over and over; the conversation was starting to loop. "But it had to be someone in Hogwarts who took her!" Chelsea was exasperated.

"How do you know she was even taken, maybe she just left."

"No student could leave the grounds without being noticed by _someone!_"

"Both of _us_ have! And no teacher would take her!"

"Well _we_ can both portal!"

"She could have gotten her powers!" they hissed back and forth at each other, working things out.

They were walking along the forest, jumping out of their skins whenever they heard the littlest noise. They were not following a path, encase Hagrid happened to be perusing the forest in the middle of the night.

The trees were getting bigger and closer together as they got farther into the forest. In some places it wasn't possible to walk through patches of the trees because they were too close. Several times the two sisters had to loop around humongous patches of trees because they found themselves surrounded.

Going into the forest, their goal had been to find a spot sufficiently out of view of the school so Chelsea could make a portal to Vampira, who could help them find Lyssa. They figured they would have to go pretty far in to make sure no one would see fire in the forest in the pitch black night.

Now, the goal was to find a clearing with trees far enough away from them that they wouldn't be in danger of setting anything on fire. Neither one of them thought to turn back and find a spot where the trees grew farther apart. At the moment they were just two scared little first year girls.

Going into the forest, they had been scared out of their minds of finding werewolves or the centaurs or some other type of non-human being that would resent them encroaching on their territory.

They finally found a clearing and gratefully stumbled into it. But what they had never expected was to find themselves surrounded by giant man-eating spiders. They had stumbled into Aragogs nest and were too frozen with fear to get out.


	15. What Sharp Pincers You Have!

TriNymphs - Chapter Fifteen - What Sharp Pincers You Have! (Disclaimer on my profile)

* * *

Lyssa was shackled to a rusty hospital operating table, water leaked through the stone ceiling and landed on her foot. The table slowly filled with water until she was floating in it slightly and it started to pour over the edge.

The man, who she assumed had stuck her in here, had just left the little rectangular room. He seemed somewhat familiar, but Lyssa could not place him. Her mind was foggy, the result of muggle anaesthetic. She gave up on placing the man, for now, and tried to remember what had happened before she woke to find herself in this dismal place.

She remembered being in the library. The rest of the school was out at the Quidditch game. Quidditch games were the only time Lyssa was completely alone, Chelsea wouldn't miss them and couldn't very well guilt Alex into staying with her when she wasn't. Lyssa was secretly happy for the time alone. She liked to brood about things, and Chelsea always attempted to make her think happy thoughts.

She remembered turning around, because she heard footsteps. There was no one there, she waited for a while, searching the area before her intently. Then there was a footstep behind her, she snapped her head around to see who it was, but there was no one in sight.

She only got one glimpse of the utter deserted-ness of the library before something smashed against her head and everything went black. The headache she got when she finally woke up from her dream was a bitch.

It held no clue that she could see as to the identity of the man, who kept his face covered by the baggy hood on his cloak. He had left the candle on a small table next to the only door out of the room. It was made out of metal, and was, by far, the most sturdy-looking thing in the room.

The candle flickered and only lit half of the room, Lyssa strained her neck to see the wall closest to her feet, which was the only one completely visible. There was nothing of interest, except a small hook next to the door, on which her regular clothes were hanging. She was now dressed in hospital attire, and felt sick when she realized this, because she did _not_ change into this herself.

The wall on her right is partially lit, there was nothing over there either except for the chains coming from the wall. Lyssa had seen those earlier and surmised that this used to be a dungeon, but the chains were rusted, like everything else in the room, and so probably hadn't been used in decades. At least.

There was an odd smell, like chalk, and Lyssa turned to try and see the other side of the room. It was buried in shadows, which her eyes briefly battled against. And lost. She sighed and let her head fall back onto the table, just as the door screeched open.

* * *

Chelsea and Alex ran screaming through the forest, being chased by hundreds of many legged beings. When they first walked into the clearing they had both been frozen with fear. Alex had recovered quickly and was more terrified of the giant carnivorous spiders then of what her sister might do to her later, so she ran screaming through the forest.

Her screaming snapped Chelsea back into motion, and she followed suit, running after her sister. Though she didn't scream, because with her mobility had come a small bit of common sense. If you scream while you run you wont be able to run as far, therefore Alex would tire out before her.

She didn't have to out run the spiders, just Alex. Mind you the fact that she had a head start wasn't helping; but, Chelsea was in far better shape though from years of Quidditch training while Alex went into the next village and bought smoothies. She quickly caught up to her sister, then passed her.

They had been running about fifteen minutes now, and were near the edge of the forest almost back in the clear open space.

Or they would have been if Alex had gone running and screaming in the right direction. Around the time Chelsea passed her, Alex had realized this. Unfortunately, now that she was closest to the acromantula there was no chance of her being able to turn around.

She screeched up to Chelsea, "Open your damnable portal already!"

Chelsea, who had by now also realized they were going in the wrong direction but was unable to turn and find another route realized that this was indeed, a good idea.

She concentrated on a spot twenty steps in front of her, a portal behind her would do no good. To her at least. The original plan had been to make a portal to Dominic's house in hell. Unfortunatly panic had taken over Chelsea's mind and she instead made one to beside the lake, deciding anywhere but here was good enough. She concentrated to the point of having a headache, and after ten seconds that felt like a millennia, the portal opened, right as Chelsea tripped over a tree root and face planted the ground. Ten steps to safety

* * *

The door of Lyssa's rectangular prison screeched open and her captor entered, face still concealed. All but the bottom part of his face was hidden in shadow, his face -or what she could see of it anyway- was wrinkled and lined, he looked old.

His mouth was in a smirk as he slowly advanced toward her, taking his time in creeping her the hell out. He stopped when he was behind her head, and she lost sight of him for the most part. However, he was kind enough to hold the enormous needle he pulled out of some pocket in his cloak above her head for a moment so she could see it.

He grabbed her by the hair and roughly pulled her head up, he stuck the needle into her spine, and she screamed. He held it in place for about a minute while it filled with spinal fluid, then walked over to a small table -out of Lyssa's sight- hold vials of variously coloured potions.

He added the spinal fluid to some of them, and made notes on which colour they turned. "Ah," he said to himself once he had finished, "You'll do perfectly."

Lyssa was strapped down on the table, hyperventilating as he walked towards her. She thought to herself, "I haven't got a snowballs chance in hell."

* * *

Alex caught up to her sister a second after she fell, Chelsea's ankle had been twisted and it hurt like a bitch. Alex ran in front of her and pulled her up, just as the first acromantula reached them and lunged for her leg.

"Help me walk, I'll shoot spells at them," Alex nodded as Chelsea kicked out at the front spider with her good leg. Alex wrapped her arm around her sisters waist, supporting her as they walked backwards and shot spells as fast as they could. Unfortunately, being first years, they hadn't learnt many good ones.

"Wingardium Leveosa," Alex shot several of the spiders in the air, on at a time, dumping them onto their scurrying kin. Nothing the two did slowed the acromantula for long, having eight legs apparently made it very easy for them to right themselves, and get detangled from the others.

Just when they were about to come upon them in masses, the sisters stumbled backwards into the portal, landing on their butts. Chelsea closed it the second they got through, cutting one of the lead spiders in half and letting two others through. They both made a beeline for Chelsea's wounded leg. Alex quickly got up and went to jump on one of them, and squish the damn thing.

She would have too if there hadn't been an explosion from the middle of the lake, sending a mini-tidal wave over the land and sweeping the two terrier sized spiders away. Once they got their footing on land again they scurried back into the forest, giving up on the hope of having one human each for supper.

It wasn't worth drowning, since the lake was apparently attacking them too. They grabbed their dead kin's front half for supper and hurried off for a quiet place to chow down.

Chelsea had given up on moving, and was lying face down on the muddy ground. She was beyond caring what caused the mini-tsunami. She had held her breath when it had gone over her, whilst holding onto the ground so she wouldn't get swept into the spiders.

The wave was gone quickly and she didn't have too much trouble holding her breath for the majority of the time. Alex, on the other hand, was standing up and didn't need to worry about it as the wave had only gone to her waist.

The water seeped back into the lake as Alex stared at it curiously. All thoughts of their sister was temporarily wiped from their minds as they simultaneously thought, "I am _not_ getting into that, I've had enough action for today."

Just as they thought that, Alex saw a shadow-esque shape rising to the top of the lake. It stuck it's top end above the water. Alex backed away a step from this weird looking thing as it slowly advanced toward the two.

She was debating whether to leave Chelsea or not.


	16. Swamp Thing

TriNymphs - Chapter Sixteen - Swamp Thing (Disclaimer on my profile)

The cloaked man advanced towards Lyssa again, she could hear his footsteps. She thought he was walking loudly on purpose to freak her out. Her reasoning on this was that making his footsteps heard over her hyperventilating was an impressive feat.

He walked to her left side and stuck a needle in her arm, it withdrew blood. She spent the next twenty minutes bullying herself into calming down. Realising that was a lost cause; she decided she would settle for acting calm. When she finally achieved this state, she addressed her captor. He was currently experimenting on the blood in a similar fashion to the spinal fluid experimentation.

"Who are you." he didn't say anything. She tried again, "why are you doing this?"

"Because I need a test subject," he chuckled.

"For what?" Lyssa accidentally whispered, her voice quivered and she couldn't make it sound any louder.

"Experimentation on non-human magic users," he was trying to freak her out again, and it was working.

"I'm human though!" she said, when the thought occurred to her. She was excited and naively thought that her being human meant he would let her go.

"You're a nymph you idiot."

"But I don't have any powers!"

"Which makes you the perfect subject, you can't fight back!" the captor smiled. "Oh, and to deter any misconceptions you may have, you should know this now. There is no way I will be letting you out of this alive."

She started screaming in the hopes that someone could hear her. She seemed to have forgotten that no one had come last time she had tried screaming. All other sounds were drowned out by her screaming, which intensified when a floating head made out of light appeared in front of her own head. It seemed to be yelling something at her, but that was drowned out by her screaming. The floating head head-butted her, as (in absence of any other limbs) that was the only way it could inflict damage on her. The fact that the head made of light was substantial and could actually hit her, shocked Lyssa into shutting up. Mind you, she didn't process it like that in her mind, no her thoughts were more along the lines of, "WHAT THE BLOODY FUCK MAN!"

Oh yeah, did I mention she had leant to cuss over the past few months?

"FIGHT BACK" the floating head screamed at her.

"I FUCKEN CAN'T!" she screamed back. The hooded man, worried his test subject had gone insane and that it would mess with his results, poked Lyssa on the top of the head. He apparently could not see or hear the floating head, and wondered what she was yelling at, if it wasn't him.

"PISS OFF YOU OLD BASTARD." she roared.

"GO! GO! GO!" the head encouraged her mental break.

Then, Lyssa suddenly recognised the floating head, which belonged to the woman who tortured her in her dreams, and she completely snapped.

She yelled again, this time not in terror but in madness, as something inside her snapped and a wave of pure energy was released from her. Water pushed its way through the crack in the ceiling into the room where Lyssa was still restrained on a rusty hospital and her captor was taking cover from falling ceiling debris. The water quickly broke the ceiling and attempted to drown the old man who unfortunately had his wand on him and could stop that from happening. Lyssa however did not have her wand on her, and if the water had been anywhere near her, that might have been a problem.

However, though the water flooded the entire room, there was a bubble of air around Lyssa, who was still restrained on the table, seeping out energy. She was no longer screaming, but staring curiously in front of her wondering what the fuck was happening. A strip of water broke away from the rest, and crept into the seam of the shackles holding Lyssa to the table. It forced them apart and Lyssa was finally free. She hopped off the table, watching in wonder as her captor floated away, and a boy floated through the doorway, and up towards where the ceiling had been, then towards the surface of the lake. The bubble of air collapsed around Lyssa and she too floated up.

Her chest started to burn after a minute of no air, she glared enviously at her captor, floating fathoms above her using the bubblehead charm. She was even jealous of the boy, also above her, who was unconscious.

A grindelow shot past, skimming her head, and surprising her into opening her mouth. Lyssa was surprised to realise she wasn't drowning; she could breathe in the water.

* * *

Alex had decided she would kick Chelsea to get her up, and then run for the hills. After that, it wasn't on her whether or not Chelsea got away. Chelsea was lying on the ground oblivious. Alex took aim and kicked, as the shadow thing started walking towards them. It was something wearing a cloak, and it was dripping with water and mud. Presumably from it's trip in the lake. Alex was booking it back to the castle, and was clear of the lake by the time a second thing rose from the depths.

The second thing looked like a student. He or she was floating face down in the water, and Chelsea (who had sat up) was staring at the student, wishing there was a way to get to him or her without passing the mud thing. She slowly got to her feet as a third thing rose from the depths.

The third thing looked like it was made out of hair. Or it was the head of a person and the rest of him or her was still underwater. It walked forward a bit, the third thing which was in fact a female, walked until the water only went up to her chest. She brought her left arm up and pointed it at the first thing -the mud thing- that had stopped walking when it had noticed the girl reach the surface. She flicked her pointer finger up and the water turreted up and blasted the mud thing clear of the three students.

It ran into the forest and wasn't seen again that night. The girl walked over to the boy floating face down, flipped him over and started propelling him towards the shore. On the way, she pushed her hair out of her face, and Chelsea finally saw it was her sister.

* * *

The boy had started to breathe on his own after a minute of CPR from Lyssa while Chelsea had been sent to run up to the castle and fetch Madam Pomfrey, or any teacher she ran into. Lyssa went to the hospital wing the next morning to see if he was okay. She could somewhat relate to him. Or she thought she could, she didn't know though because he hadn't yet woken up, besides he had apparently been in there much longer.

According to Madam Pomfrey and his name was Erik Fae, he was a Ravenclaw second year. A friend had seen him at Kings Cross, but no one had seen him at Hogwarts all year or on the train. A letter had been sent to Dumbledore a week or so after term started saying Erik was going to be home schooled. Dumbledore had recently written his parents, who said they had never written such a letter and had thought their son had been at Hogwarts the whole year.

All the other students were in class, but Lyssa had been given the day off. Tomorrow too. She was going to have to start studying like mad to catch up. She could finally sleep and she had gotten incredibly far behind during her zombie period. But first she wanted to see something. She got up from her chair beside Erik Fae and started making her way outside.

It was three days since she had flooded the chamber under the lake, and lately she had been able to sleep fine. She had started talking to her friends again; they were also all in class. Alex had tried to get at least a day off, but it hadn't worked. She was furious.

But something entirely different was bothering Lyssa. She was a little mad at herself for it, since she had _just_ gotten over her sleeping issues, and gotten back from being kidnapped, albeit it had only been for a day or two, but still. She just had to check something, then she'd let it go, she tried to convince herself as she made her way across the grounds and got to the lake. She had lately avoided the lake. She was talking to her friends now and not distancing herself anymore, the lake only served as a reminder of a perfectly creepy day or two.

That day, she had been controlling the water. She could feel the energy coming from her directed at the water telling it what to do. Some instinct had told her how to control it; how to blow the kidnapper away from them. She had talked to Chelsea and Alex; they said it wasn't normally like that. Chelsea said if she concentrated hard she could feel some energy, but nothing was guiding her.

The day before she had been in the bathroom alone, the taps were on, she had pointed at the water. She tried to feel like she had that night, but nothing happened, the water continued to pour from the sink down into the drain. So the next day she was walking towards the lake. She tried controlling the water; she tried balling it up and lifting it above the water line. She tried making the clouds above her start to rain. She couldn't do anything.

She sighed and walked back into the castle, preparing herself for a day of solid studying. After supper she checked on Erik again. That time he was awake, they talked for a bit. She had assumed he wasn't human, but some magical creature that could do witch and wizards magic, like her. She had guessed he would be a nymph, based only on the fact that that's what she had been kidnapped for.

Turns out, he was water elemental. His parents were enrolling him at Hogwarts until his elemental powers appeared. Unlike with witches and wizards, that could be any time. Some elementals and nymphs didn't get their powers until they were old men and women.

Now that Lyssa could sleep, she found she had tons more energy. She pulled her marks back up and was the top student in many of her classes. She wouldn't admit it to herself but she was jealous of her sisters, and she concentrated at excelling at spells so she wouldn't feel inferior to them.

Exams came and went, fairly uneventful. Alex almost got kicked out of a few of hers for excessive swearing. She was easily frustrated and a lot of questions tended to come up that she had no idea on what the answers could be. She managed to scrape by on all her subjects though. Chelsea got average marks on all her subjects, except for a few she got slightly above average on. Lyssa of course aced everything. Except Defence Against the Dark Arts. Professor Copper was a horrible teacher. He didn't manage to get his students to learn anything. He had been especially bad the last couple weeks, he kept losing focus and staring out the window dreamily, at odd intervals.

Everyone was glad Professor Quirrell was coming back next year.

They spent the last few days together with their best friends. They were always in a group, the sisters, Katie, Holly, another Slytherin girl Eve, and a Ravenclaw girl named Cho that was friends with Lyssa. Erik sometimes joined them as well; he and Lyssa had become friends after their ordeal, as they found they could relate to each other, and knew how to distract each other when they started to think about depressing shit.

The group spent the train ride home together playing exploding snap and wizard's chess. When they got to platform 9 3/4, they promised to write to each other over the summer then went their separate ways. Even Chelsea and Alex went off on their own, to some dark corner of the station where they could make a portal without being seen. After what happened to Lyssa and Erik, neither thought it was a good idea to advertise that they were nymphs.

Chelsea had made plans to stay with Vampira and Dominic over the summer, there was no way she was going back to the Malfoy's. Alex was going back to the earth kingdom for part of the summer, she was going to stay with Daniel, the boy who had trained her when she was there before. He didn't talk much but they were friends. She would be going back to Malfoy manner for half of the summer; she couldn't leave Melissa alone with their parents and annoying little brother _all_ summer, now could she?

* * *

**A/N - **And that's the end of year one, finally. This story is going over two years which is really an enormous cut because when I first started writing it I was going to make it the whole seven years. I had thought of a plot for each of the seven years though, so a few more people review this story I'll post the other two years I have planned out because either way I'm going to write it. There's no way I'm writing the whole seven though because that would be absurd. The second year won't be as long because in this one the main characters go through more personal stuff then they will in the next year.

Anyway, thanks for reading.


	17. Happy Time

TriNymphs - Chapter Seventeen - Happy Time (So named because the story is going to be a lot happier for the next few chapters)  
(Disclaimer on my profile)

Lyssa found herself in a very familiar place that she had last been in months ago. She was standing facing the Grecian goddess looking woman, who was standing silently in front of the fountain. Lyssa sighed; she had hoped she would never end up in that place again.

She looked to her right and saw Alex, who was looking back at her, "Yo."

Lyssa was surprised, "How did you get here?"

"Fell asleep. Wound up here."

They waited in silence for a time then about an hour later Chelsea appeared. Lyssa just blinked then there she was. "What the hell!" she exclaimed.

Little brats keep making me wait so long, thought the Grecian Goddess irately. "I am Atlas, mother of the Pleiades," she announced.

"Good for you," Alex scowled, voice dripping with sarcasm. The woman scowled back at Alex and Lyssa, who she had just noticed was backing away from her. Lyssa didn't like her current proximity to this woman. Chelsea just stood there, twiddling her thumbs.

"I'm here to give you the 'talk'" she said, darkly.

"I already had _the talk_," Alex started, "I'm leaving, goodbye."

"Not that talk you insolent child. Get back here. Now!" Vines sprouted from the ground and grabbed Alex's leg. They half dragged her back to her original spot.

"I am Atlas, the Greek people recognise me as one of their goddesses. I am the mother of the Pleiades, which is a constellation based on seven sisters," she said, in a dull bored voice. "The sisters were all Nymphs and were named Merope, Electra, Alcyone, Taygete, Celeone, Asteropea, and Maia. The Pleiades were changed onto pigeons, then into the constellation. Every few generations one of them is reincarnated.

"Very rarely there are two of them in one generation. Weirdly enough, all three of you are Pleiades. I am required to tell you this, as otherwise things can go chaotic." she continued. "You Alexandria are the reincarnation of Merope, and you are an Earth Nymph. Chelsea is Electra, and a fire Nymph. Melissa is Maia, and a Water Nymph."

"Why did you keep bugging me during the school year!?" Lyssa snapped. She was still capable of being unkind, though she generally didn't do it on purpose anymore.

"Because you needed the burst of power you excreted whilst in the dungeon. Otherwise you would be dead now. You won't be able to use your powers at will for a while yet. Any other questions." she asked, testily.

The triplets were pondering over this; it was kind of cool to find you were the subject of a myth. But all in all, it didn't feel real to them. It wasn't like this was going to somehow change the course of their lives; Or that they would suddenly be responsible for the fate of the world; Or any other such extremity.

Alex raised her hand, like she was asking a question in class. "You," the woman said in response.

"May I go back to sleep now," she said in a falsely sweet voice.

Alex had encountered Atlas before, only she didn't realise it at the time. Atlas had shown up as a spot of light on her wall one night, in the shape of her head. She also used this method to goad Lyssa into releasing power while she had been temporarily kidnapped. It was an easy way to get the three to shut up and listen to her when she didn't want to wait for them to fall asleep.

"Fine," she snapped, and all three sisters went back to their regular dreams.

The next morning, Lyssa sat up in bed and sighed. She never wanted to have to go there again, being there put her on edge even when she wasn't being attacked. She slid out of bed and trudged down to the kitchen in her pyjamas.

She poured herself a bowl of cereal and waited for a sign of human life from the rest of the house. A sign that came when Alex woke up a half hour later. She had her ear buds in and was listening to her iPod, dancing down the stairs in time to the music.

She was a music junkie, and had been listening to her iPod all summer in preparation for the nine months of music withdrawal. An hour later the whole family was sitting in the kitchen eating some form of breakfast. Dobby was sitting in the corner stomping on his toes for having let Mr Malfoy's eggs burn slightly. Chelsea was even there; she had lately been popping in random days to see if the Hogwarts letters had come yet.

The family was sitting in the kitchen sleepily, trying to motivate themselves to move so early in the morning, except for Alex who was practically bouncing off the walls in joy from her music. Lyssa was staring dreamily out the window, trying to think of something to do that day, and noticed four owls growing steadily nearer to Malfoy Manor. "Hogwarts letters," she said. She knew what she was going to be doing today at any rate. Family shopping at Diagon Alley. She stifled a yawn behind a piece of toast.

Draco immediately jumped off his chair and bounded over to the window. He saw there were four owls and let out a cheer. This was to be his first year at Hogwarts; Chelsea remembered how she and her sisters had felt when they had each gotten their first letter.

The feeling was reflected in their surrogate brother who was dancing alone around the kitchen. Lyssa wasn't the type of person to burst into dance, and now that Alex had already been at Hogwarts a year she found her little brothers' excitement immature. Mr and Mrs Malfoy had left the room; Mr Malfoy had gone to work while Mrs Malfoy had gone to visit a neighbour.

Chelsea took pity on her little brother dancing alone and went to join him. They danced around the kitchen singing. While they were busy doing that Alex went to the window where the birds were waiting to be let in to deliver their letters.

The owls for Chelsea and Draco attempted to perch on their respective shoulders to draw their attention, Draco immediately quit to rip open his letter. Chelsea stopped too as there was no point in her dancing alone. Just as each of the four had opened their letters and were reading them Narcissa Malfoy entered the room, back from the neighbours' house.

"You got your letters!" she exclaimed, cheerily. "We'll head straight to Diagon Alley once your father gets home!" Last year she had done the same thing. The family went to Diagon Alley as soon as was possible under the circumstances.

Their house had been under siege by Siena Caine, an upstart journalist from the family sections of the Daily Prophet, desperate to be the next Rita Skeeter. The disappearance of Chelsea was the most interesting article she had been assigned to in a long time.

Lucius Malfoy got home around four and was promptly dragged over to the fireplace by Narcissa, who had been lying in wait for him to get home. She had insisted the children get ready to go out at three-thirty in the unlikely chance Lucius got home early. "Going shopping today, are we?" He sighed.

This had happened a number of other times; Narcissa always liked any excuse to go to Diagon Alley. Narcissa nodded furiously in response to Lucius' question. In response to which he sighed and took some floo power. In a flare of green fire, he disappeared to Diagon Alley to be followed by the rest of the family.

* * *

**Happy Christmas Eve Everybody!**


	18. The Harry Potter

TriNymphs - Chapter Eighteen - _The_ Harry Potter? (Disclaimer on my profile)

The Malfoy's arrived in Diagon Alley to the sound of screeching. Eve Saruwatari came bounding up to the triplets squealing. Cho Chang trailed behind her looking embarrassed to be seen with the loud child. "Guess who was just checking out Cho!" Eve asked cheerily.

"Who?" Chelsea loved any piece of gossip.

"Cedric! The _only_ hot guy in Hufflepuff. He's a fourth year now, and he just walked past us. He was completely checking her out!" Eve continued to squeal. People were starting to turn and stare, and her green hair didn't exactly help matters...

"She's exaggerating..." Cho said quietly. Her face was red.

"Well it wouldn't be Eve if she wasn't." Chelsea laughed, she liked the neon headed Slytherin girl for her refreshing cheerfulness, but she knew she could get annoying sometimes.

"Umm... Girls... Why don't you go off with your friends while we help Draco get his new Hogwarts things…? We'll meet back here in an hour." Lucius had no wish to be stuck with a group of loud preteens all day.

Narcissa pouted, she loved whole family shopping trips. She would usually drag everyone into stores that no sane person would ever go in. On a visit to France one year they accidentally put her in charge of finding a street to shop on. None of them had ever seen that many stores devoted purely to selling cheese in their lives.

The three girls jumped at the chance to shop without parental supervision. It would be much less antagonizing that way. The group walked down the street, slowly accumulating bags as they picked up their school supplies. Chelsea, Alex, and Eve lost Cho and Lyssa to Flourish and Blotts.

Lyssa was picking out extra spell books containing different charms and jinxes she could try. Towards the end of last year she had started working ahead of the other students, so she could stay even with her sisters. Cho was a Ravenclaw and was infinitely content meandering through the shelves and taking out random books to look through.

In the mean time Chelsea, Alex, and Eve were buying the rest of their school supplies. They stopped in Zonko's to peruse their new collection of pranks. Chelsea picked up some wet-start fireworks, but there was nothing in there to interest the other two. Though Eve dearly wished there had been some sort of device to help her listen into other peoples conversations.

They went and got some ice cream once they were done, by the time they were finished it was time to meet up with the rest of the Malfoy's again. They were thankful for their perfectly uneventful shopping trip after years of shopping with their mother.

The triplets got to the designated meeting place, Cho and Eve had both gone back to the Leaky Cauldron where their families were staying. They got to the meeting place just in time to see Mr and Mrs Malfoy shove aside a random muggle couple who had been idling in front of them. The couple shimmied over to the side to allow others to pass easier. They were very aware that the vast majority of the people in the Alley could do magic, where as they could not.

They stood out about a mile because of their clothes. Their child, who the triplets assumed was starting Hogwarts this year, glared at the Malfoy's as they were striding past. She had brown bushy hair and large front teeth. Draco, trailing along after his parents stuck his tongue out at the bushy haired child.

The Malfoy's took the floo network back to their manor and the four Hogwarts students exchanged purchases and shopping stories. Draco started going on about some boy he was talking to in Madam Malkin's when he suddenly saw a giant in the window holding two ice creams. "He was _massive_." Draco drawled. "The boy said his name was Hagrid, would that be the Hagrid you said works at Hogwarts?" he asked, idly.

"Must be, I can't imagine there are two people _that_ massive with a name like _Hagrid_ neither attributes are exactly common," Alex scoffed. Both Lyssa and Chelsea shot reproachful glares at the two, none of the four had ever talked to Hagrid, but he seemed like a nice person.

At the end of the day Chelsea left Malfoy Manor for Vampira's flat. She was thankful her 'father,' Mr Malfoy, had ignored her for the entire visit. She didn't want to get into that again.

The next time she saw her sisters was on at platform 9 3/4. They shared a compartment with Cho, Katie, Holly, and Eve. The compartment was split into Slytherins on one end and Gryffindors on the other, the group was somewhat dysfunctional as half of them refused to speak to the other half in the spirit of Slytherin-Gryffindor rivalry. Cho was sitting in the middle as the only non-Gryffindor-or-Slytherin person; Chelsea was in the middle as well as the only person who would agree to talk to every person in the compartment.

The neon green haired Eve, being of a gossip queen, was going on about everything and everyone that she had heard gossip about over the summer. Everything from who was apparently going to be on the Quidditch teams this year to which of the older students had hooked up over the summer. She had heard enough to talk almost constantly throughout the trip.

At the mention of Cedric apparently hooking up with some girl from Beauxbatons over the summer Cho looked distinctly put out. At which point Eve burst out, "Ha! I _knew_ you liked him!" After which Cho glowered at Eve, who obliviously continued to go on about some couple that apparently _had_ hooked up over the summer.

Not that she was entirely sure what a hook up entailed, as she was still eleven years old.

In the corner Katie, Chelsea, and Cho started discussing Quidditch. Lyssa was currently sitting between the three, and had to attempt to make the choice between sitting next to the goddam Slytherins and listening to them babble away or being bored to death with Quidditch talk. She chose to be bored to death.

"I am _so_ going to make the team this year, as a chaser." Katie said, "One of the chasers from last year, Lulu Vasari, got kicked off the team for being so bad."

"Isn't she the one that kept running head on into the bludgers?" asked Cho.

"And the goal posts?" added Chelsea.

"And the stands," confirmed Katie, grinning. "I'm easily better then her, I could've made the team last year but first years can't have brooms," she frowned.

"Maybe I'll try out this year too," Chelsea thought out loud. "I also play chaser, and Fern Aporro finally graduated from Hogwarts so there's a spot open..."

"Fern Aporro?!" Asked Katie, "she was horrible, even worse then Vasari. How did she even get on the team in the first place?" Katie continued, astounded.

"Oh, she was sleeping with the captain. Didn't you guys know?" Eve interjected.

The three Quidditch nuts each shook their heads, mouth slightly hanging open at the thought that Eve knew anything even remotely related to Quidditch. Something that even _they_ hadn't known.

At that moment Draco opened the door to their compartment, come to visit his sisters. Katie and Cho exchanged a look as the snotty little boy conversed with the three. Suddenly, Eve burst out some random snippet of gossip she had just remembered. "Oh my God! Did you guys hear, apparently _the_ Harry Potter is coming to Hogwarts this year!"

"As in, The-Boy-Who-Lived Potter?" Asked Alex, curiously. Eve nodded vigorously, eyes wide.

"He'd be in your year, huh Draco." Holly asked dully.

"She speaks!" Chelsea blurted out as Holly had just said something for the first time during the train ride. Holly raised an eyebrow at her, as opposed to staring dreamily out the window, drooling slightly, as she had been doing the whole train ride.

"She's only been so quiet because she's thinking about this Italian guy her daddy set her up with over the summer. Apparently he's quite hot and their parents arranged for them to marry ages ago!" Eve gushed, cheerily. Holly then shot her a look. And growled a bit. It was weird.

"So Harry Potter is on this train?" Draco interjected, before the conversation could go elsewhere.

"Yeah, he's in a compartment somewhere near the end I think," Eve said, disinterested. Draco quietly left the compartment, a half hour later when the news about the Italian guy was finally done being talked about, they noticed he was gone. "So is he really as hot as I've heard?" Eve shot at Holly.

All the girls in the compartment who were on speaking terms with Holly decided to bug her about this guy as her face went slightly red each time he was mentioned. It was funny. The only time they took a break was to change into their robes.

* * *

I'm gunna be posting a chapter each day until chapter 22 (possibly 23) because I've had them all done since before I posted 17 so... yeah...

lol


	19. Gossip Queen Defeated

TriNymphs - Chapter Nineteen - Gossip Queen Defeated (Disclaimer on my profile)

The train finally arrived at Hogwarts; the group piled into one carriage and spent the short ride to Hogwarts in silence. Each one was anticipating the welcoming feast. When they arrived they followed the crowd into the Great Hall. They said goodbye to Cho as she went to join her Ravenclaw friends at their table. The rest of the group went off to their respective tables. They showed no sign of knowing each other after that in the spirit of house rivalry.

The hat sang its song, about each of the houses and what they were known for, and how Hogwarts came to be a school. When Draco was sorted into Slytherin, as everyone knew he would be, Alex got up and cheered. She had ignored the other first years. Draco ran over to the table to join Crabbe and Goyle, the sons of deatheaters. Lucius and Narcissa had told him to befriend them, they were his new cronies.

The sorting went on, "Moon," was sorted into Ravenclaw. 'Nott,' went into Slytherin. 'Parkinson,' a pug faced girl, was sorted into Slytherin as well and skipped over to sit next to Draco and make eyes at him. 'Patil' and 'Patil' were a set of twins that got sorted into Ravenclaw and Gryffindor. 'Perks' was sorted into Hufflepuff. Then, as the name 'Potter, Harry' was called the hall broke into a million whispers.

A small first year boy with jet black hair and a lightening bolt shaped scar on his forehead walked forward and sat on the three-legged stool. Everyone subsided into silence as they waited to see which house he had been sorted into. It seemed like the hat was really thinking on this one, as the seconds ticked by the expression on the Potter kids face changed comically.

Fist surprise, presumably at the hat talking to him, then he calmed down and started to look anxious, as the hat was presumably pondering over his traits and which house they would best correspond with. At one point he looked alarmed, and then squeezed his eyes shut. Lyssa guessed the hat had just suggested a house for him and that he was dead set against going into.

The hat eventually shouted out, "Gryffindor!" and the Potter child walked over to his new table. The Gryffindors screamed their approval. He was getting the loudest cheer out of all the first years, Draco looked distinctly put out. Apparently being a Potter who had defeated an evil sorcerer at the age of one warranted a person more popularity then being a Malfoy did. Who would've guessed?

For those at the Slytherin table the rest of the sorting passed in general disinterest. Some kid was sorted into Ravenclaw. Then some of the Slytherins looked over when it was announced that yet another Weasley had come to Hogwarts.

"Honestly, they breed like rabbits," snickered a fifth year student just two places down the table from the group of second years. Alex and Holly laughed. Eve leaned over the table to get a view of the boy talking as the person next to her was rather tall and she could not see over his head.

"How many of them are there at Hogwarts?" Eve asked. She had to gather her information somewhere, after all.

The boy raised an eyebrow at her, then started to think, "Four." he stated slowly. "But he is the sixth of that family to go through here, two of them already graduated."

"That would be Bill the Head Boy and Charlie the Gryffindor Quidditch Captain right?" Eve asked, to general astonishment amongst her friends.

The conversation stopped as the table cheered for Blaise Zambini, who had just become the newest Slytherin. Then the sorting was over and many of the students stared down at their plates in hunger.

Dumbledore got to his feet. He was smiling, and his arms were stretched wide out, as if he were going to hug the entire hall sitting before him. "Welcome," he started his speech, "Welcome to a new year at Hogwarts! Before we begin our banquet, I would like to say a few words. And here they are: Nitwit! Blubber! Oddment! Tweak!' he said, and then sat down with a, "Thank you!"

The Slytherins promptly dug into their food as it appeared in front of them, not caring in the least about Dumbledore's oddities. Over at the Ravenclaw table Cho Chang and some friends of hers were wondering idly if the four words Dumbledore had just proclaimed were his, 'welcoming speech' had any meaning whatsoever. Or if they were just four random words.

The ghost of the grey lady was sitting next to them; she didn't talk much but stared at the food enviously. She in no way contributed to the conversation but just sat there looking depressing, every living person in the immediate vicinity found the situation to be awkward.

After the deserts disappeared Dumbledore stood to make his proper speech. He mentioned the forbidden forest being well... forbidden. He said this for the sake of letting the first years know, but his eyes went over to the Weasley twins.

"When did _they_ ever sneak into the forest?" asked Alex.

Eve was about to go into some huge explanation, but Chelsea quickly put her hand over Eves mouth and whispered over to Alex, "She'll tell you later."

Next he mentioned the no magic between classes rule. There was some chuckling in the hall as people remembered that was a rule, and thought back on all the times it had been broken last year. Next Dumbledore (having ignored the laughter) announced that quidditch tryouts would be held in two weeks, and who people should contact to get their name on the list.

Then he announced a new rule. That the third floor corridor was now out of bounds to, "everyone who does not wish to die a most painful death." Everyone within sight of Eve looked over to her to see if she had heard of why they were no longer allowed on the corridor. She shrugged her shoulders, looking put out.

Next he announced that they would be singing the school song, and that everyone should pick their favourite tune. He flicked his wand and a long gold ribbon flew out and formed the words. Alex picked the tune of a techno song she liked.

After the Weasley twins had finished their funeral march paced song, everyone went to bed. The Slytherin password that year was Salazar.

They passed through the common room and went straight to the staircase leading down to the dorm rooms; theirs was at the bottom of the stairs. Before the Slytherin girls went to bed, Alex asked Eve about the Weasley twins going into the forest. She had been interested since Dumbledore's speech.

"Who cares," Eve said, grumpily. She had been in a bad mood since hadn't known why the third floor corridor was out of bounds. It wasn't often she didn't know what was going on.

"Who was that guy with the turban at the staff table?" asked Chelsea. He had been the only one of the teachers she hadn't recognised. Eve didn't answer, as she was busy being grumpy. Chelsea went up to her and got all up in her face. "C'mon, you want to tell us! Ya know ya do!" she coaxed.

Eventually Eve grinned, "OK! He was Professor Quirrell the Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher. Last year he was travelling across Europe, to get first hand experience with like... Dark creatures and stuff. Apparently he ran into some vampires and a hag, now he's a nervous wreck. They say he stuffs his turban with garlic to ward off the vampire encase he comes after him again."

"Figures they make the vampire out to be the bad guy," Chelsea muttered, annoyed.

* * *

Just a note having to do with the not-all-that-relevant chapter tittle. The titles aren't named after the most important part of the chapter, they are named after parts that I liked or found funny. Because I have a hard enough time with chapter titles without trying to think of one for something I have already used up all my interest in.


	20. Through The Rabbit Hole

TriNymphs - Chapter Twenty - Through The Rabbit Hole (Disclaimer on my profile and OMG look a Note: This chapter title has even less to do with the acctual chapter then usual just so you know)

The next day classes started. The heads of houses went around their tables handing out schedules. The group met quickly just outside the doors immediately after they got theirs. They were counting on the fact that no one would be outside that early, they wanted to meet and compare schedules. Depending on who saw them, the dungeons could have become a very dangerous place.

The Gryffindors and Slytherins had Potions and Defence Against the Dark Arts together. Cho had Herbology with the Slytherins and Transfiguration and Charms with the Gryffindors.

They snuck back inside gradually and went off to their classes. Lyssa and Katie went off to Charms with Cho. Professor Flitwick started off the class by taking attendance, as every first class of the year was generally started, so the teachers could get to know who was in the class. After that was finished he started on the lesson on a charm to unlock locks.

Each person was given a small padlock and was instructed on how to use the spell. Cho's friend Maria was intensely trying to open the lock, her attempt however did not work and she was getting progressively more agitated at the lock as time went by. Lyssa did not envy Cho, who would have to spend the rest of the day with her yet.

By the end of class most of the students had gotten their locks to open, as Flitwick had started them off on a rather easy charm. Maria was one of the very few people who had yet to unlock it. Flitwick set it as homework to those few as they would be starting something else the next day. One of the girls who hadn't been able to pull off the charm picked the lock, unfortunately for her Flitwick had seen her do so.

In the meantime, the Slytherins were in Transfiguration with the Hufflepuffs. That class was started with the attendance being taken as well, after which they moved on to turning a beetle into a button. Unlike the students currently in charms, few were able to do so by the end of class.

Next was Defence Against the Dark Arts. The classroom was spilt into a Gryffindor side and a Slytherin side. It passed fairly uneventfully. Snape only managed to take a total of five points from Gryffindor in that class. It was taken because of Katie who accidentally added way too much of some obscure sounding ingredient. This resulted in the caldron bubbling over and dissolving its way through the table.

Then it was to the Great Hall for lunch. Chelsea ended up sitting next to Warrington, a chaser on the Slytherin Quidditch team. She struck up a conversation about the team. Usually no girls would be expected to get on the team, but according to Warrington there weren't very many promising Slytherin players that weren't already on the team. That meant she had a good chance.

Or, she had a good chance as long as she tried out to be a seeker. The chaser spots were apparently as good as taken already. When Madam Hooch got up from the staff table and started walking out of the hall Chelsea got up and jogged after her. She had a head start but Chelsea caught up in the next room.

She asked to sign up for tryouts. She followed Madam Hooch to her office where the signup sheet was, then hurried off to her next class.

It was Defence Against the Dark Arts with the Gryffindors. She stepped into the class just after the bell rang; she wasn't particularly worried as Eve had said the new teacher was a nervous wreck. Eve was never wrong, Chelsea thought to herself, thankful for her friend, as she walked over to sit next to her.

Quirrell was attempting to make his way through class list, which was taking longer due to his stutter. He didn't mention Chelsea coming in late.

The class passed in relative boredom, aside from the Slytherins mocking Quirrell. Next was Herbology for the Slytherins and Ravenclaws. Chelsea, Alex, and the other two were free to sit near Cho and Maria as there was no Slytherin-Ravenclaw feud. In the meantime, the Gryffindors had Transfiguration.

Those classes passed smoothly, they were the last of the day and once they were finished, people went off to a long awaited break in the common room.

"How's Hogwarts treating you, lil bro?" Alex asked Draco, as he came strutting into the common room.

"Just _fine_. Does Snape act like that towards all the Slytherins?"

Alex nodded before Eve interjected, "Nope, he favourites you a little more even then most of the Slytherins. It's apparently because you're a Malfoy." Eve had evidently gotten over her frustration at not knowing about the forbidden third floor corridor.

"We're Malfoy's too," said Alex gesturing to herself and Chelsea.

"Not according to Snape or Mr Malfoy. They were talking through Snape's fireplace last night, rather loudly I might add, and apparently you two and Lyssa are adopted. Besides, you both go by the last name Black, don't you?"

The two (and Lyssa when she was told) were surprised; Alex however was the only disappointed one, as she was the only one to fit in with the Malfoy's. They left her to deal with that. Chelsea had always suspected they weren't her real parents, but as time went on and she got older she started to doubt this suspicion, and think that it was maybe just her hopes talking.

Two weeks later were Quidditch tryouts. Saturday was the Slytherin tryouts. First the hopefuls, which were about twenty-five or so in numbers, were split into three groups then made to do laps around the pitch.

Five people were eliminated after that; next they did more laps, still in their groups. But that time the three already existing members of the quidditch team threw small balls at them as they flew. Not as painful to be hit with as bludgers, but it still weeded out a further three people who were awful at dodging and quickly fell off their brooms. Seventeen remained.

After that they were tried out in groups according to which position they wanted. First was the Chaser spot. It was given to some boy named Montague that Chelsea knew little about, but he was very good. Warrington and Flint were chasers, but played Keeper during tryouts. They were pretty good at both positions, and the person who could get the most goals past them got the chaser spot. Keepers next, the one who could save the most out of ten goals got the spot.

They already had two beaters, so then it was finally the Seeker tryouts.

The snitch was let loose as the five hopefuls (including Chelsea) stood on the Quidditch pitch. They waited fifteen seconds for Warrington to blow the whistle then they took off. First person to get the snitch three times won. First time was a girl in third year. Second time was the same girl.

She caught Chelsea staring at her, sizing her up, and she smirked. The third time the snitch was let loose; Chelsea caught it, chasing it halfway across the pitch while the girl ran into the stand whilst trying to go after it. She hadn't gone high up enough.

Fourth time was a boy in sixth year. Fifth was a fifth year girl. Sixth was Chelsea, she was tied with the second year girl. That girl had been progressively getting more and more awful.

Seventh time, Chelsea was circling above the pitch above where the rest of the team would be in an actual game. She had seen seekers doing so at the World Cup in Ireland a few years ago. The Malfoy's had gotten tickets through some ministry contact there.

The girl she was tied with was circling just below where the players would normally be. The other three were ambling around at normal height, hoping to run across the snitch. Chelsea spotted a glint of gold at the other side of the pitch just below her. She streaked towards it, passing the other girl, who was stationed half way across the field. Before she even noticed anything the snitch had been caught.

Only one of the people trying out saw her streaking towards it, so absorbed were the others in their search. She easily outstripped the third year boy with the unibrow and caught the snitch, making that her third catch.

She got on the team!


	21. Die Because I'm Bored

TriNymphs - Chapter Twenty-One - Die Because I'm Bored (Disclaimer on my profile)

"All of the teachers favour that damn Potter! He should have been caught out of bed last night and gotten kicked out! And before that, Madam Hooch left to take that wimpy Longbottom boy to the hospital wing. Potter was caught flying when she told us that if anyone did, they'd be immediately _expelled._ And what happens? He makes the damn Quidditch team! And he's even allowed a broom!" Draco was furious. His attempts to get the Boy Who Lived expelled had gone unsuccessful as of late. He had taken to ranting about him to Alex and Chelsea; Crabbe and Goyle were dull and Draco wasn't sure they understood a thing he said. And Lyssa was a Gryffindor, as far as he knew, she would take Potters side.

Though Chelsea had to admit the teachers _had _seemed to break a few rules for him, she still thought it was fair that he hadn't been expelled as it would have been because of Draco goading him, and not because he had really done anything. Alex was content to hate any Gryffindor, aside from Lyssa... usually... So she joined in with the Potter bashing. But from the amount Draco had started to complain about him, Chelsea was starting to think he was getting a little obsessed.

Even with the amplified school drama (what with Draco complaining and being better friends with Eve), the current year at Hogwarts still felt relatively easy so far; After their previous year at Hogwarts where each of them had been 'kidnapped' at one point. Even Chelsea, who had Quidditch practices on top of the normal coursework, wasn't feeling particularly strained.

Mind you, the Slytherin Quidditch team was pretty cocky and only felt the need to have practices once a week. As opposed to the Gryffindor team which, according to Katie, practiced three times a week. She also said that the captain, Oliver Wood, was a nut and would have had them practicing more then that if it weren't for classes getting in the way.

Alex was even doing well in her classes because she had so much free time. She was so bored she ended up actually doing her homework! Whenever she was alone with her sisters, she often mentioned wishing something interesting would happen that year. Before she died of boredom. When she wasn't talking about that she would bring up the topic of not being an actual Malfoy. Her sisters couldn't care less, they weren't attached to any of the Malfoy's except for Draco; and he could be a prick sometimes.

"Why don't you write him and see if he has anything that proves we're actually Malfoy's, if it bugs you so much?" Alex didn't like that idea, she was afraid that if she wrote him about it she would find out that she actually wasn't. So she stopped bringing the subject up.

When Halloween came they were all glad for the slight break in routine. They entered the Great Hall (separately of course; none of them had the slightest idea how they got through last year without being beaten up for being with members of the opposing house) and they saw live bats littering the sky and jack-o-lanterns with candles sputtering in their mouths.

And when, just after people had sat down and started to eat, Professor Quirrell ran into the hall to yell, "Troll! In the dungeons - thought you ought to know!" and faint. Chaos temporarily ensued; Alex sent up a quick prayer of thanks that something exciting was finally happening, and then joined the chaos. Students stood up, screaming and yelling, and tried to figure out what to do.

Many were about to leave and run over to their common rooms, but this posed a problem for the Slytherins as their common room was in the dungeon, where the troll was. The other houses didn't immediately leave for fear the troll had made its way upstairs. "What if it's in the entrance hall! I bet it is right now! It's going to come in here! WE'RE ALL GOING TO DIE!" squeaked one Ravenclaw first year whilst running around in circles.

Purple firecrackers erupted in the air above the teachers table; all the students shut up and looked over there. "Prefects, lead your houses back to the dormitories immediately!" Dumbledore said.

"Slytherins over here!" roared Nicolas Duecento, a sixth year Slytherin Prefect. As he was leading the students towards the doors the head boy, who was in Slytherin, was shepherding first years into the queue; before they were left behind.

"Let's go find the troll," Alex whispered to Chelsea. They had gotten separated from Eve, Holly, and their little brother, Draco. Alex saw this as the perfect chance to go and get some action.

"Are you crazy? We'll be pummelled!" Chelsea hissed back.

"No we won't! We've dealt with worse!"

"Such as!?"

"The damnable great spiders in the forest last year!"

"Oh really, because if memory serves, all you did was run away and scream at me to make a portal!"

"What d'you mean portal?" Draco leant forwards so his sisters could hear him. He had apparently been right behind them; they had thought they lost him in the chaos.

"It's a... umm... Slang term!" Alex thought quickly. "First years wouldn't understand it."

"And when were you two in the forest!" asked Draco, thinking a few comments back in the conversation.

"Are you _trying _to get us caught!? There's a prefect right there!" Chelsea nodded over to a prefect a few feet away from the siblings. Draco opened his mouth to say something back, but Chelsea cut him off, "Just shut up, we'll explain later." And with that the two sisters turned their back on him.

"I still think we should go," Alex whispered quieter. Chelsea did not deem the comment worthy of a response. The elbow she promptly hit her sister in the gut with had nothing to do with it. No, really.

They got to the common room to find a table set up for the Slytherins to finish their meal buffet style.

Over the next few weeks Alex kept trying to corner Chelsea and talk about why someone would let a troll into Hogwarts. She was quite looking forward to the opportunity to do something other then school work. Unfortunately, there was no one she could get to help her investigate. She kept bugging Chelsea about it as her sisters were the only ones she could use any nymph spells around, and she figured Lyssa was a lost cause.

One of the many times she had pulled Chelsea into a deserted room to continued arguing, Eve happened to walk in. "Do you mean the troll that got in at Halloween?" she asked.

"Alex has some insane idea that there's a huge mystery, or conspiracy behind it. She wants to investigate." Chelsea explained, exasperated.

"Which teacher got it?" asked Alex, looking for a lead. If anyone knew, it would be Eve.

"Oh, didn't you hear what happened?" Whenever Eve asked to expel a piece of information, she generally started with the words, 'didn't you hear'. This time was no different. "Harry Potter and some of his friends found it. They knocked it out before any of the teachers got to it."

Alex was outraged; she turned on her sister, "You said that a student wouldn't be able to stop it! Last time I listen to you!" she scowled.

Eve continued, "One of them, something-Granger, went looking for it. She's apparently a top student and a book worm so she thought she could handle the troll herself. Harry Potter and his friend Ron Weasley, the youngest Weasley at Hogwarts, went looking for _her._ They found her in the girls' bathroom, locked in with the troll. Potter stuck his wand up its nose and Weasley levitated his club. He let the club go and it landed on the trolls head."

Alex was seething mad at her sister. She vowed to never again talk to her. But when they walked out of the room and Eve went down another corridor, out of their earshot, Alex forgot about that as soon as Chelsea hissed, "For Gods sake, next time you go blabbing on about something that could get us _expelled_ check if there is someone else within earshot!"

To which Alex responded, "Screw you!" and stormed down a different hall.


	22. Ever Again

TriNymphs - Chapter Twenty-Two - Ever Again (Disclaimer on my homepage)(And thus the consecutive updating ends, this is my favorite chapter though...)

Alex had promised herself that she would not talk to Chelsea ever again after she ruined her chance to find something to do. 'Something to do,' here meaning, 'go after the troll and possibly be killed'. And after she told her sister 'screw you' in response to some comment she made about checking if someone could hear them before saying something that could get them expelled; she fully intended to keep that promise.

And she did. Until first thing the next morning. That night they had both been brought back into the clearing that Lyssa had visited so often in her dreams the previous year. The triplets were the reincarnates of the Pleiades, a group of seven sisters who were nymphs. Atlas was a Grecian Goddess and the mother of the Pleiades, when she needed to talk to the sisters she would meet them in the clearing in their dreams.

Or, it that wasn't an option, she would appear as a floating head made out of light. She had used the clearing option that particular time; all three would have to be asleep for what she was going to do.

The last one to arrive was Chelsea, as usual. The Slytherin-Gryffindor Quidditch match was coming up so there were extra practices for the Slytherin team. Flint was actually starting to make them work hard; Gryffindor was the only team that he saw as competition. She collapsed on her bed, and immediately saw the clearing.

"You're late," Atlas said, irritation evident in her voice.

"Well blame Flint, he made us practice late. Besides you didn't set a time!"

"Why the hell are we here anyways? I want to go to sleep." Alex whined.

"From this point on I am going to be training you. Usually I can find another Nymph to do it, but they've had to keep hidden more these past few years," she added bitterly. "Damnable prejudiced wizards."

"Could I take a rain check the next few days? I'm exhausted; we're going to be practicing almost constantly."

Atlas scowled, "Fine." and Chelsea disappeared from sight.

"How did she _do_ that?!" Alex exclaimed.

"_She_ didn't do it; the only way you can get out of here is if you wake up, or if I let you."

The next few hours were spent practicing. Lyssa was gone in the first half hour, after being attacked over and over again. Atlas eventually accepted that she could not get Lyssa's powers to kick in as of yet. So she let her go, and Lyssa slipped into a dream which thankfully had nothing to do with the damnable clearing.

Meanwhile Alex, the last of the sisters left with Atlas, was being taught how to make pre-existing plants grow bigger. Atlas was much more patient with her, and seemed to favour the most caustic of the sisters. After a few hours she had made some progress. The plant would grow, but it took a while.

She was sent back to her own dreams at two in the morning so she could get some rest. After she talked it over with Chelsea when they both woke she vowed never to talk to her again, ever. She went to down to breakfast, then grabbed some toast and signalled for Lyssa to meet her outside. They spent the time talking about the new training they would have to undergo. After that topic had been exhausted, Alex brought up the troll. As she was no longer willing to talk to Chelsea, she needed to find someone else to investigate with.

She decided she would ask Lyssa once, and then if she refused she would go it alone. Lyssa did refuse, Alex didn't bring the topic up again and the two went to class.

At the end of an uneventful day of classes, Alex's promise to herself (not to talk to Chelsea) was still unbroken.

Until an hour later when Draco, their little brother, walked up to her and asked about something he had heard her say on Halloween. Something about portals, and having gone into the forbidden forest. They had promised to explain later to avoid a nearby Prefect overhearing them then telling a teacher on them for going in the forest.

Draco knew nothing of what had happened last year except that each of his sisters had disappeared for a time, and reappeared at Hogwarts. So naturally he was curious about what had happened and why they had gone into the forest, if not for detention. He expected some great adventure story, and approached Alex as soon as he remembered that she and Chelsea were supposed to tell him about that. Alex told him to wait there so she could get Chelsea. Alex didn't know what she could say without giving anything else away.

Chelsea was at Quidditch practice. They were in the middle of a practice that ran from the end of classes until it was curfew and they_ had _to go inside. Alex had waved her down from fifty feet in the air, where she had been circling. She flew over to Alex, catching the snitch on her way down. She was not about to leave practice, Flint would kill her. He made her work the hardest as she was the only girl on the team.

When Flint saw the sisters talking he yelled, "Get back to work Black," over to Chelsea. The triplets went by their mothers' maiden name. They always had; when they were little Alex had asked why they still went by Black if neither of their parents did. Mr Malfoy said it was because they hadn't been married when the girls were born.

Now that Chelsea knew he wasn't their real father she figured it was just because he didn't want it to appear that he was connected to them in anyway. This would have been much easier accomplished if Narcissa wasn't so fond of family shopping trips and outings.

Chelsea kicked off the ground, leaving her sister behind after refusing to ditch practice. She let the snitch go and waited for it to fly out of sight before continuing her practice. This was not good for Alex, who had no idea what to tell her adoptive brother to explain what he had overheard her saying; without giving anything else away, that is.

Alex reinstated her personal promise not to talk to Chelsea ever again, and this time she would make it work God damn it! Now that all foreseeable emergencies had been addressed there was no reason for her to talk to her anyways.

Alex went to find something else to do; she couldn't explain everything to her brother alone after all. He would figure out she wasn't coming back eventually. Probably. She decided that this was a wonderful opportunity to go investigate the troll. No one was going to help her anyway, so she figured she might as well start then.

She had somewhat perused the dungeons already and found nothing. So she sat by the lake and used the time for brain storming. She had no leads and no ideas.

So eventually she gave up on that, and decided to go see what was in the third floor corridor that she wasn't allowed to see.


	23. Minutes of Fame

TriNymphs - Chapter Twenty-Three - Minutes of Fame (Disclaimer on my homepage)

"Chelsea, I have decided to talk to you again." Alex announced. She was scared and needed a bodyguard.

"When were you not talking to me?" Chelsea was amazed that she had somehow ruined such a thing.

The day before Alex had sworn to herself, several times over (having broken it many times) that she would not talk to Chelsea ever again. But having just gotten back to the common room after investigating the third floor corridor alone, she wanted to feel she had extra protection.

Inside the room at the end of the corridor was a three headed dog! Alex had stepped into the room, saw it, and booked. Slamming the door closed after her. Screw excitement; that was a big as hell dog. With three heads!

She had no intention of ever entering that room again, but refrained from making a promise to herself about it after her promise of not talking to Chelsea had failed so epically.

That night Alex woke up with a start several times over, she couldn't feel quite as safe inside Hogwarts anymore. This was making their training session with Atlas, a Grecian goddess who had given birth to the Pleiades (seven nymph sisters), especially gruelling. Atlas was getting annoyed with them, as Alex was the only one of the three that she even remotely liked.

Chelsea was not participating in these training sessions at the moment as she had a Quidditch match coming up, in fact, it was the next day. That left Lyssa and Atlas in training with Alex popping in and out. Lyssa had no idea what she should be doing, having not gotten her full powers yet, and so needed constant guidance. That was unfortunate because Atlas and Lyssa had had a bad history together in Lyssas past lives and Atlas despised her.

So when Lyssa stayed behind that practice session, that was probably why Atlas was so surprised. She approached her instructor slowly. "I have a question."

Atlas, "hmm"-ed to show she was paying attention.

All of their training sessions had taken place in the clearing they were currently in. The ground was covered in foxtails (as in the plant) which swayed in the, what must be imaginary because they were technically in a dream, wind. The fountain of a woman, who was probably made to look like a nymph, cried silently in the centre of the clearing. The weeping willows swayed along with the foxtails. It was a peaceful looking place, but it made Lyssa nervous as she had undergone regular torture in that place. The previous year Atlas had taken her there whenever she was asleep and tried to beat her powers out of her. She wished they could be somewhere else because she was nervous enough already.

She felt nauseous, but she had waited so long to ask this that she thought she may explode if she waited any longer. "Can you take up a physical manifestation in the real world? Besides that head of light thing you do, anyways."

"If my assumption that by 'real world' you mean Earth, then no I cannot." Atlas raised an eyebrow.

Lyssa was the reincarnation of the water nymph Merope and in their past lives Atlas had been the mother of Merope and the rest of the Pleiades. But Lyssa wanted to know who had been her birth parents in this life. If Atlas couldn't take a physical shape on Earth, then it couldn't have been her, and Lyssa very much doubted they had just appeared out of nowhere.

Lyssa asked Atlas if she knew anything about her birth parents.

"All I know," she answered, "is that the mother was a nymph in England. For whatever reason you and your sisters were put into an orphanage when you were around year old. You spent the next couple years in some foster home, and then you ended up at the Malfoy's." Atlas turned around and started to walk away, slowly fading out. She was leaving.

The next day Lyssa pondered over her parents, wondering if she would ever meet them. However her pondering was cut short by the Slytherin vs. Gryffindor Quidditch match. Normally she wouldn't have been bothered, but this year Chelsea and Katie were both on their houses respective Quidditch teams. They hadn't been able to be in the same room without attempting to psych each other out for the past month and a half. Now that it was game day, they were both nervous. If Lyssa went in the common room, Katie would want to talk Quidditch with her. Why, she had no idea since Katie could probably go up to any other random Gryffindor and _they_ would know more about Quidditch then Lyssa ever had.

But if she made some excuse to leave the common room without Katie in tow, Chelsea always ended up finding her. And _she_ would want to talk about strategy and how Katie was doing. If she couldn't do well on the Quidditch game because of her nerves, she figured she could at least do better then Katie. And she would. She just needed Lyssa to help her try and calm down by talking Quidditch with her.

And that was why Lyssa was currently hiding out in a place that neither Chelsea nor Katie would look for her. That place was Moaning Myrtles bathroom. Moaning Myrtle was bugging her enough that she _still_ couldn't think, but at least she wasn't trying to get her to seem interested in Quidditch when she really couldn't because she had her own things to think about and then getting mad at her for not helping her. Nope, Moaning Myrtle was not doing _that._

It was a relief when the rest of the school went down to the pitch and Lyssa could leave Myrtles bathroom without fear of getting cornered and having her ear talked off. She settled down in the library and did her homework. She knew she would fail it though. She wasn't paying much attention and it was due the next day, so she figured it couldn't be helped.

Hours later the rest of the students trudged up to the school all a-buzz with what had happened in the match. After the match Chelsea wanted to talk it over with Lyssa, the first place she looked for her was in the library. Lyssa saw her and considered running. She didn't though. She _was_ the nice kid after all.

Chelsea talked Lyssa through the entire game, oblivious to the fact that she was supremely uninterested. But according to her, when a first year beat Chelsea to the snitch by practically swallowing it, Flint had kicked Chelsea off the team the minute they were in the change room.

Chelsea figured that Flint wouldn't have been so quick to kick her off if she wasn't a girl. She was pissed off and didn't mind telling Lyssa so; about a thousand times.

* * *

A/N - Sorry it's taken so long to update. I've litterally had this chapter for months. But I got a new foster brother and he hogs the computer. The only reason I'm on is cause the rest of my family is out at the moment. But I'm consecutive updating the rest of the story today. It's finally done. Happy almost Thanksgiving!


	24. Revelations

TriNymphs - Chapter Twenty-Four - Revelations (Disclaimer on my homepage)

Lyssa eventually told her sisters what Atlas had told her about their actual parents. Their mom was a nymph who had lived some where in England. Their dad was a wizard. Atlas hadn't bothered to learn much about him. She also told them that they had been at another foster home first before somehow ending up with the Malfoy's.

Alex had decided not to believe they were adopted when she had just heard about it through Eve. Now she had to admit that they just _might_ not be Malfoy's. She resolved to write to Mr Malfoy and ask him about it. She didn't tell her sisters; Chelsea had never trusted Mr Malfoy and would just try to talk her out of it.

A few days later at supper she had a reply. Mr Malfoy claimed that they weren't adopted; he said it was absurd. Alex decided to believe him and put the whole thing out of her mind. She made a mental note to stick it in her sisters' faces next time she remembered. Alex was closer to the Malfoy's then either of her sisters were and she actually wanted to be one of them. Lyssa had decided not to try and stuff, what she believed was the truth, down Alex's throat. She made Chelsea do the same.

Fortunately, Alex eventually found a wonderful diversion to keep her mind off all _that_ drama. One of them being that none of the sisters had talked to Draco in a while; therefore none of them had heard his impression of Harry Potter hanging off his broom at the last Quidditch match. Whenever Chelsea heard him at it she got cross. She said good on him for not falling off, but also said if she hadn't been distracted by him almost falling she would have caught the damn snitch.

The second distraction Alex found also had to do with Harry Potter. Potter and two other Gryffindors had been caught out of bed after hours, losing their house one hundred and fifty points in all. Alex was one of the many Slytherins that made a point of thanking him for helping them get closer to winning the house cup whenever she passed him in the halls. Lyssa always dragged Alex away whenever she was near her and Potter at the same time.

Lyssa said it was just a house cup and that it wasn't worth tormenting someone over. She was pretty disgusted with her fellow Gryffindors shunning the kid and thought that the Slytherins were being pretty immature. She even made an effort to talk to Potter in the common room when everyone else was ignoring him. She had meant to be nice, and thought he seemed like a nice kid, but she had never talked to him before nor did they have anything to talk about now. It was just... quiet. So she settled for telling off Slytherins for being mean to him.

A week later Draco came back from the detention he had shared with Potter and his friends. It was the middle of the night and he was hysterical. Something about a man wearing a cloak, drinking unicorn blood, and attacking him and this other kid he didn't deign important enough to name. But as hysterical as he was he refused to tell any of the teachers for some reason, and when asked about the other kid and how he/she was, Draco quickly changed the subject.

"Oh my god. Did you leave the kid there!" Chelsea screeched. If it hadn't been so late the whole of Slytherin house would have looked over to see who was yelling in the common room. As it was, there was only one other kid, and he was apparently a pretty deep sleeper.

At any rate, even if her sisters didn't exactly approve of Alex's newfound entertainment, Atlas was just happy she wasn't moping about anymore. She had already had to tell her off in several of their practice sessions for not paying attention. As Alex was the only one of the three that Atlas liked at all, she hadn't really appreciated her going all moppy. With Alex out of it like that, training had been torturous for Atlas. She generally walked around brooding and crabbily directing the triplets on what they were doing.

Except for Lyssa. She hadn't even managed to use her powers at will yet, which just frustrated Atlas. All she could do for the time being was test old wives tales that were supposed to make one able to unlock their stationary powers. To say the least, it was boring.

Yet another distraction presented itself in the form of a Quidditch match. Chelsea was getting increasing pissed off as the new seeker smirked at her in the halls. Surprisingly the new seeker wasn't the third year girl who had been so close to beating Chelsea in the tryouts. It was some seventh year boy who was friends with the captain. Slytherin bias in action. It didn't help matters that they won the next Quidditch match. Cocky little bastard.

He kept bragging. Oh, he didn't say anything to her. But Chelsea could tell. She really wanted to slap the stupid grin off his face. She almost did so once too when he was loudly retelling the story of his win in the common room, and making some comment about her loss being miserable. Too bad Chelsea was interrupted by Alex; she really would've liked to slap him. "See!" She said, waving a piece of paper in front of Chelsea's face. "We _are _Malfoy's!" Alex had finally gotten around to sticking the letter from Mr Malfoy in one of her sister faces. The letter was short and to the point.

_Alex,_

_That's absurd._

_-L. Malfoy_

"Uh, yeah. Sure." Chelsea sighed. She had predicted Alex spending the next hour or so talking about it. 'I should really take up divination next year.' she thought wryly, a half hour later.

Meanwhile, as her sisters were in conversation down in the Slytherin common room (well, one was in conversation, the other had eventually fallen asleep, only to be smacked awake), Lyssa was escaping. Katie had taken it upon herself to educate Lyssa in all things Quidditch. She had escaped to peruse the grounds on the pretext of going to the library, claiming she had unfinished homework.

As she walked towards the lake, she realised there was someone already there. It was Erik Fae. Last September he had been kidnapped from Kings Cross station and held in a room underneath the lake. Lyssa had been kidnapped as well, but only for a day or two. In comparison to his term in the room under the lake, which spanned almost a year, it wasn't that bad. After they got out they had bonded a little, but then hadn't seen each other throughout the summer or so far the current year, which was over half done.

"What's up?" Lyssa asked, walking up next to him on the dock.

He jumped. Apparently he hadn't noticed her until she spoke. "Just nervous."

"How come? You seemed fine when we left for summer vacation." Lyssa automatically assumed it had something to do with last year considering where Erik had choosen as his brooding spot.

He rubbed his neck, "I thought I saw him. The guy from last year." he said the second sentence so quietly Lyssa wasn't sure she heard him right, even standing right beside him.

"What was that?" she asked.

Erik blinked. "Never mind." he turned on his heel and half ran back into the castle.

Despite what Erik thought he saw, for months nothing happened. The triplets were almost done their second year at Hogwarts, Draco and the Potter kid were almost done their first. All was more or less peaceful and normal. The Slytherins were cocky that they were apparently going to win the house cup; they were extremely far ahead after all, due to Potter and his friends.

Exams had started. Lyssa and Chelsea were studying like crazy. Even Alex studied a little, though considering she was with Holly she probably didn't take in much of the information anyways. It was the night before their potions exam. Chelsea and Alex weren't too worried. Snape gave them the standard Slytherin special treatment, even if he didn't like them as much as their brother.

All three sisters were asleep. Lessons with Atlas had been post-poned until further notice so they could concentrate on their exams. Which is why it confused them all when she had appeared in their rooms (In the middle of the night; So much for being well-rested before the exam) screeching for them to get up immediately.

* * *

A/N - Alright, so the reason they are being woken up in the middle of the night near the end of the year _does _have to do with the Philosophers Stone, and that whole deal in the third floor corridor. However, I promise you, it's nothing as asshol-ish or Mary Sue as them going and rushing in in the middle of Harry's boss fight and magically defeating Voldemort. Acctually, they never even see Fluffy. So just read it please. I promise I didn't steal Harry's boss fight.


	25. Bossfights and Broomsticks

TriNymphs - Chapter Twenty-Five - Boss fights and Broomsticks

"GET UP!" Atlas screeched. She was currently in the shape of a blob of light, and was hovering beside the bed of one of the three nymph sisters. She screeched more. The glass in a nearby mirror broke, effectively waking up Lyssa. As well as all of her room mates. "Go to the third floor corridor. Run!" Lyssa got up and ran out of the room, her roommates stood and watched her go, confused. Then she realised what she was wearing and pulled better pants over her short shorts, as well as a sweater over her tank top. She raced back out the door.

Atlas went to Chelsea and Alex's room next. Screeching at the top of her lungs. A window broke. Not one of the five girls in the room stirred. She was reduced to head butting them, which luckily they could still slightly feel. Even if it only felt as if someone was blowing on their faces, they felt it and eventually woke up. They took the extra minute to get dressed decently as well. Atlas had gone back to Lyssa to fill her in as she raced down the four or so flights of stairs. Lucky that in both cases she had left before the sisters had taken the time to dress or they would have been told off. And have you ever tried running through a place where there was a very high chance a disgusting looking old man would find you in little more then your underwear? It did not encourage speediness. It encouraged proceeding quietly and ducking in every available hiding place.

Lyssa was nearing the third floor. Atlas had finished explaining by then and gone to explain to the other two what was happening. They had just gotten on the ground floor and were making their way to the huge stair well. Atlas gave them the rap. There was nothing else she could do. She had died_ looong _ago and wasn't able to do much in the human world. She would only distract them now, so she went back to her place with the other deities to sit back and watch, ready to pop back in if someone else showed up and the girls needed warning.

Lyssa burst into the third floor corridor, skidding to a halt in time to see a man just going into a room in the end of the hall. She only saw the back of his head, but she figured he must be the person Atlas warned her about, so she shouted the first spell that came to mind in an effort to stop him. "Wingardium Leviosa!" Lyssa levitated a large stone torch standing at the end of the hall near the man, hitting him away from the door with it. A hood fluttered at the top of the cloak the man was wearing. It had been down so Lyssa hadn't noticed, but it looked awfully like the one the man who kidnapped her had worn.

Lyssa walked cautiously towards the man, who had taken the torch on the head and was currently unconscious. "Who are you?" she asked quietly. It echoed throughout the, mainly empty, corridor. The man woke up, it's not like Wingardium Leviosa was a particularly forceful spell. Lyssa was halfway across the room. The man slowly rolled over to face her, and then stood.

"I believe now is the time where I make some horrible joke about you still having late homework, but I haven't the time to deal with children." Professor Sage Copper, the former defence against the dark arts teacher, sighed.

"It was you?" Lyssas eyes went wide.

"Magical creatures have always been a bit of a hobby of mine, unfortunately nymphs and elementals -like your friend Erik- are hard to find. So you two had to do for the time being. Anyways, as I said, I've not the time to deal with you. Goodbye." he turned away.

"Incendio!" Lyssa set his cloak on fire, continuing to walk towards him.

He sighed and took off his cloak, leaving it to burn itself out. "I'd hoped you weren't going to make me fight you. I really must go."

Lyssa kept her wand pointed at him. Her mind was racing trying to think of any spell in her second year repertoire that would be useful in this fight.

"Rictosempra!"

"Protego." Copper was aiming his wand at Lyssa, but suddenly stopped part way there.

"Duck!" Atlas yelled, in the form of a ball of light. Lyssa didn't hesitate, and still only narrowly dodged a spell coming at her from behind. It hit Copper, whose sheild spell had gone out, and he flew back and hit the wall as well as part of the door, breaking it open. Copper scrambled out of the way to avoid the giant dog head suddenly attacking him.

"Imobulous!" The dog slowed down drastically. Copper shoved him into the room and slammed the door shut, repairing the door just in time to lock it.

Lyssa turned around to look at the new entry. Mr Malfoy. "Damn, this is gonna _suck_." Lyssa thought. She was out numbered two to one by people with much more experience and skill then herself.

"Do something!" Atlas urged.

"Expelliarmus!" Lyssa shouted, having finally thought of a spell somewhat useful to the situation. Mr Malfoy's wand soared out of his hand and landed somewhere behind Lyssa, who was standing with her back to the wall, one enemy on each side. "One down." she thought. "Or at least, one disarmed and slightly less dangerous at the moment." Luckily he hadn't been paying much attention, and was instead eyeing the door, wondering how to get past the dog.

Mr Malfoy started walking towards her. Lyssa couldn't think of anything to do. And then there were ropes binding her, she couldn't move. Mr Malfoy took his wand back, and took Lyssas from her hand for good measure.

"Proceed." Mr Malfoy nodded towards Copper.

Copper stretched his arm back towards the door, readying his wand arm to shoot a spell at the gigantic dog. His hand was on the door knob. He turned the door knob. Mr Malfoy was walking towards him, to join him. The door was being opened, slowly. The door suddenly ignited in flame.

Copper stumbled back, away from the door. His hand had been burned; he shook it, trying to cool it down. Finally he remembered he could shoot water out of his wand and he poured some onto his hand, cooling the burn. Alex walked it. "Miss me?" she smiled.

"Way to steal my dramatic entrance." huffed Chelsea, walking up next to Alex after having setting the door on fire. Power over fire was proving useful. Chelsea saw Lyssa on the floor, bound and gagged, and rushed over. The gag was removed. Chelsea took a while severing the ropes with a spell. They were very tangled and several times she had to cut through the same rope in more then one place.

"Stupify." Mr Malfoy shot a binding spell at Chelsea as she was working on Lyssa's ropes, and then turned his wand towards Alex. Chelsea dove to the side, attempting to avoid the spell. Luckily though, a few moments before the spell would have hit, vines crashed through the window. One shot forward and headed off the spell. The vine froze. Alex scowled. She had had to call for those things like five minutes straight before anything could grow all the way up to the third floor from the greenhouse below the windows. Now one of them was already out of commission. Alex started concentrating on calling up a third. Chelsea resumed untying Lyssa, then they both scrambled back towards the door, ready to make a hasty exit if need be.

Mr Malfoy shot a curse at the girls. They ducked out of the way. Chelsea decided to test something. If Alex's vines could stop a spell, could her fireballs? It wasn't as likely. Especially considering it wasn't a living thing and didn't have a particular mass. Stuff could move through fire easily. She started on the incantation anyways, waiting to say the last word until Mr Malfoy used another spell. They were going to hit. A ball of red and yellow, and a spell of blue. They hit head on, sparks flew off; but the spell was effectively stopped. Now she was in business. Chelsea smiled.

Atlas floated over from the side, where she had been observing. She stopped in front of Lyssas face. She was close to the door, ready to hail Filch to go get help if he happened to walk by, or hell even Peeves. But no one came. She threw in the occasional spell as well, but she didn't have anything as useful as fireballs or vines, even. "Do something! " Atlas shouted at Lyssa.

And then Lyssa was fed up. Atlas must have noticed over the past months that no amount of nagging or attacks would make whatever powers she had inherited from her nymph mother appear. She was starting to doubt that she even had any. Maybe she had had just enough for that one burst in the room under the lake. Maybe that was all the power she had and she used it up in that one hit. It was fine with her. She considered that a damn fine way for it to have gone. She had saved her life, and her friend Erik's life.

Whatever. She would stand here and help her sisters however much she could with her limited abilities and she would grow up and work on being a witch. And she would ignore Atlas. She was done with her bitching.

Chelsea threw a fireball to head off a spell Copper had cast. It hit on the side and the spell was knocked off course, but didn't break into little sparks like it would have if it had hit head on. The spell hit the wall near Lyssas head, bursting open the wall. Apparently there had been pipes in there, because suddenly a torrent of water was headed at Lyssa's face.

She stepped back and flung her arm up to cover her face, out of instinct. When nothing hit her, she looked up. The small torrent had stopped right in front of her hand. Lyssa's eyes widened. She flung her hand towards the two death eaters her sisters were fighting. The water followed, but didn't stop with her hand. It kept going and hit the two men. For a minute they were surprised, and that was all the time Alex needed, she flung the third vine through the window to tie the men up. It had barely gotten there in time.

And just as the two were tied up, a first year flew through the door. The other one having gotten off to open the door, she walked in after. Lyssa moved away from the wall that water was still spraying from and looked at the two. "Aren't you Ron and Hermione?" she asked. She had seen them around the Gryffindor common room.

Ron landed and the two of them paused for a minute, taking in the destruction and putting their broomsticks to the side. There were dents in the wall, all from the deatheaters spells. Being in their second year at Hogwarts the triplets hadn't learnt spells quite good enough for that. There were also burns on the walls, from where Chelsea's fireballs had hit. And thanks to Alex and her vines, half the windows were broken and plants were strewn across the room. And then there was the water on the ground halfway across the room from the hole it had come from. And how could you forget the stone torch that had been thrown across the room at the beginning?

The two first years only took a second to take this in, then Hermione pushed Ron into action, "We have to hurry!" and they ran thought the corridor into the stairwell, effectively running into the Headmaster on their way.

"Dumbledore!" said Ron.

"We were just going to find you! Harry is in trouble, he's in the last room down that trapdoor!"

Dumbledore nodded and hurried forward. He would have time to ask about the wreckage of his corridor later. The students watched him head through the door, and then looked around awkwardly. It was rather... Anti-climatic. Then Chelsea noticed something and raced towards where Alex's vines lay on the ground. "They got away!" She looked around incredulously. "All that and no one thought to take their wands?" Her voice was reaching a rather high pitch and it was getting hard to hear her. She looked out the window onto the grounds, which Mr Malfoy was currently flying over on a hijacked broom. Mr Malfoy waved to the group from the edge of the forest. He would walk around the castle then through the gates, after all, he was allowed on the grounds anyway.


	26. And That's a Wrap

TriNymphs - Chapter Twenty-Six - Last Chapter - And That's a Wrap (Disclaimer on my homepage. Thanks to anyone who has read this or watched it and mad thanks to fRANkiEGirl61 for being the only one to review)

Everyone had already known that Mr Malfoy was a death eater. Except for apparently the ministry. But the triplets told Dumbledore what happened, and even if Mr Malfoy wasn't about to be arrested (the Minister was in denial) Dumbledore said that Copper had been caught. He was currently residing in Azkaban. "He was an odd child. He always had an interest in the dark arts, but his obsession was in magical creatures. We once caught him trying to dissect a flubberworm. No one could ever forget about that kid," Dumbledore chuckled, "He was the lone Muggle Born in Slytherin."

Other than the meeting with Dumbledore, life for the triplets went completely back to normal. Exams finished. Classes ended. They did have to spend a day in the hospital wing though, just to make sure they weren't injured.

On the day of her last exam Chelsea walked into the girl's dormitory to find Dominic lounging on her bed reading a gossip magazine most likely stolen from one of the girl's beds. Chelsea snorted, "Perv. Creeping in the girls dorms. You're lucky no one else walked in first."

"If you had read the things your roommate has written in here about a certain Quidditch player you wouldn't be calling _me_ the perv."

Chelsea walked over and jumped onto the bed. "So what're you doing here anyways?"

"Ouch. So mean. I haven't seen you in _months_ and this is how you greet me? Maybe I'll just go!" Dominic said dramatically, standing up. Chelsea tugged the back of his shirt, pulling him back on the bed. He smiled. "My mother has sent me to be messenger boy." Chelsea hadn't seen Vampira in months either. She had missed them and felt guilty for not making more of an effort to see them, but she had been distracted. First Quidditch, then Alex with her conspiracy theories. Not to mention Nymph training with Atlas and magic classes.

"So are you going to tell me the message?"

"Trying to kick me out already?" Dominic collapsed back on the pillows, raising the magazine to eye level again and finding his page.

Chelsea lay down next to him. "So what did she write?" Pause. "And whose magazine is that anyways?" Chelsea realised the obvious question, eyes widening. She hoped it was Alex, after all the talk of gross sweaty Quidditch players when they were kids. Dominic shrugged, still trying to find the page, and pointed in the direction of the bed. "Want to clarify?" They were on the bed in the far end of the dorm. Meaning _all_ of the other beds were in the direction Dominic had just pointed in.

"The next one over." Chelsea smiled. Oh, she was going to have fun bugging someone about this. "Found one of the pages." They lay there laughing at Chelsea's roommate. And guess what. Speak of the devil; she walked right into the room. Along with Holly and Eve, the schools gossip monger. Oh shit. By tomorrow the whole school was gonna think she had been sleeping with Dominic or something. How does a twelve year old even _get_ a reputation like that?

Alex started laughing. Chelsea sat up and flashed Alex's magazine at her. That shut her up.

"Sooo, whose this?" Holly asked, looking over Dominic. He felt violated. Luckily none of the girls had read Hogwarts: A History and so none of them knew that boys shouldn't have been able to get into the girls dorms.

"This is Dominic. He's an old friend of mine visiting Hogwarts. I was just about to show him around." Chelsea smiled and edged out of the room, backtracking to pull Dominic after her. She closed the door, hiding them from view of the other girls, and poof he was gone. Chelsea scowled and walked up the stairs. He was annoying. She didn't know where to go. She had told the other girls she was showing her friend around the school, so she couldn't go back after only two seconds. She exited the common room.

"So miss tour guide, where to first?" asked Dominic, walking out from an abandoned classroom, and slinging his arm around Chelsea's shoulders. He made a show of crouching down to her level. Tall bastard.

"I 'unno."

"You're horrible at this. Maybe you should get a new job."

"Did I get fired already?"

"You sure did. Now, show me to the grounds! It sucks being under ground anyways."

So they went and they hung out and Dominic figured he shouldn't hang around for dinner since someone might rat out that some random kid is on campus. "Besides," he said, "School food is notoriously bad. Oh, that reminds me! The thing I was supposed to be messenger boy for. There's a school, where I live," he lived in Hell. He and his parents were vampires who had died not that far back. He didn't say Hell incase some random first year was listening in. "They teach people, like wizards, who died before they could finish their education. They also have a course for fire nymphs, much better than any course you can get here. My mother wants to know if you want to live with us and go to school there. I'm assuming you're staying for the summer anyways since Malfoy is apparently a jackass. There, I sounded informative, right? Well, maybe except for on the last little bit." he grinned and poofed away.

Chelsea stayed sitting, back against a tree, a little shocked. Then she raced into the great hall. She got to the Slytherin table to find Alex and her friends walking into the hall just after her. She grabbed Alex's arm and hauled her into the entrance hall. "What's you're problem?"

"You'll never guess what happened!" Chelsea told Alex what happened. Alex snuck to the Earth Kingdom to track down her friend who lived there. Apparently there was a similar school there as well. Alex invited herself to stay with her friend, Daniel, while she went to this school. He lived alone and didn't really mind. After all, she had been planning to stay the summer anyway. Alex went back to Hogwarts, just barely making it to the end of dinner. After dinner they talked for a bit and resolved to tell Lyssa the next day.

* * *

Lyssa smiled to herself, staring at the sink in the washroom she was currently in. The water was pouring out of the tap, and then taking a drastic U-turn to fly around the room. Either gravity was under construction, or Lyssa had finally started to use her powers at will. She was still smiling as she wandered around the castle. That is, until she was attacked from behind. Someone grabbed her arm and tugged it so she was turned around.

It was her sisters. The minute Lyssa was facing them they both starting blurting something out at the same time. They were half yelling. Oh great, they probably got into another fight and wanted to get Lyssa to straighten it out.

"One at a time."

They explained the situations with where they were going to school the next year. When she found out what actually happened she didn't know what to think. She had been planning on spending the summer trying to track down any living blood relatives they had left. She didn't know how she was going to afford to go back to Hogwarts the next year. It's not like the Malfoy's were going to pay for her or anything.

This problem was fixed, strangely enough, by Atlas. She had declared that Lyssa was, indeed, able to use her power at will. She had also declaired that some air nymph living in Bristol had agreed to take Lyssa in for the summer, which luckily inculded paying for her school supplies. She was a writer and had no family, so she was relitively flush and willing to help out a kid of her species.

"I'll tell her thanks when I see her, but that doesn't solve the problem of next year, and how I am supposed to learn to control water. There isn't a place for water nymphs to go. Even if there was it would probably be underwater and I need to breathe."

Atlas scowled. "Of course there's a place for water creatures. There's one for every element. The fire ones go to Hell, the nice ring of course. The place where people get thrown for selling out or being just a bit too much of a bitch. Earth type goes to the Earth Kingdom. Air users go to Heaven, but they can't stay there for too long periods of time whilst they're still alive. There's even a place for the creatures who only use prophesy! Some canyon in the middle of nowhere that's supposed to give you visions of the future."

Lyssa waited in suspense to find out where this place she could go was. No apparent answer was forthcoming. Atlas started to walk away. "Hello!" Lyssa called.

"Hi." Atlas said, still walking.

Lyssa ran a bit and caught up. "So what is this place?"

"A lost city. It sank under the sea and blah blah blah and now only the water nymphs, elementals, and etc can get to it."

"It's underwater? But I can't breathe underwater."

"There's sort of a bubble around it. You'll be fine. But you aren't going there yet."

"I'm not?"

"Unfortuantely, no. The powers that be have decided that I have to teach you more first. You have to have some basics before you go to this school. You can go to Hogwarts for the next year then hopefully by the end of the year you can go to the special school and I won't have to teach you anymore." Atlas walked away, smiling at the thought. Lyssa woke up, into her bed at Hogwarts. It was the last day of the school year.

It was the end of the year feast. It seemed like it had gone pretty fast, but Lyssa was just glad she hadn't been kidnapped again. Excluding the couple minutes where she had been tied up in the third floor corridor.

The feast flew by. Lyssa hung out with Katie and her Quidditch nut friends. She wasn't that sad to be leaving. She would be back next year. The next morning the whole group got on the train. Katie, Holly, Eve, Erik, and the triplets. Even Cho and her friend Maria were in there, even though it felt like they hadn't talked to the others much since the beginning of the year. All of them in one compartment. Alex and Holly had to sit on the floor. They weren't happy about it. Eve had volunteered to sit on Chelsea's lap so she wouldn't take up a seat but wouldn't have to sit on the floor. Eventually she was kicked off when Chelsea's legs fell asleep.

For Chelsea and Alex the realisation that they were probably never going back to Hogwarts didn't hit until the fun ended and they pulled up to Kings Cross station. Everyone filed off the train, lugging their trunks after them. They said goodbye to Cho and Maria on the train, then exited farther down to get to where their parent were. The remaining members of their group found some space away from the crowd surrounding the train and stood around awkwardly in a circle. Then all of a sudden Chelsea teared up and tackled Katie. "I'm gonna miss you! What if there isn't a Quidditch team at my new school? Who will I argue about teams to!" she started to wail. They had been pretty close. As close as they could be without the rest of their houses (especially the Slytherins) noticing and doing something about it.

Alex went and hugged Holly. She stepped back. "Make sure Draco doesn't piss off the seventh years. And promise to still be a bitch. I'm not sure if my fragile reality can deal with a world where you aren't!" Alex fake sniffed dramatically.

Holly slapped her arm, smiling. They hugged again. "Great, now I'm going to be stuck being best friends with Eve." Holly muttered. Alex laughed. Chelsea and Alex said their goodbyes to Eve.

Lyssa said hers to Katie and Erik. Those ones were pretty much just the, "Hey, see you next year. Write me over the summer." sort of things. Then everyone's parents were there. And they left. As they walked off, Chelsea had an idea. She had the rare chance to tell the Queen of gossip something she didn't already know. She moved back over to Eve and whispered in her ear. "Alex has a crush on the captain of the Quidditch team the Chudley Cannons."

Eve laughed quietly. "Aren't they supposed to be like the worst quidditch team ever?"

"Unless you count the Slytherin house team this year." Katie chimed in from beside them.

The triplets were left standing more or less alone together (as alone as you can be in a crowded train station). They squeezed each others hands. "We'll find a way to write, and stay in contact, right?" Lyssa asked. Her sisters might be childish and annoying, but she didn't want to never see them again.

"Sure!" Chelsea answered quickly. "We can both make portal type things. We can sneak out of school and see you or at least leave you a note."

"Oh sure, don't make any attempt to stay in touch with me." Alex rolled her eyes.

"I'll keep letters for you guys. When we see each other I'll pass them on!" Lyssa answered.

"So. We're staying together?"

"We better." Chelsea answered, squeezing Alex's hand hard, making a point.

Dominic cleared his throat from somewhere behind Alex, whose back was to the crowd. Chelsea looked over and smiled a bit. "Well I guess I've got to go." she said.

Alex looked over and Daniel was standing off to the side trying not to intrude. "Me too."

Group hug. Then they walked away. Each starting sort of a new life. Chelsea with Vampira, Dominic, and occasionally Dracula. Alex with her friend Daniel in the Earth Kingdom. Lyssa was starting out on her own, searching for their birth parents. She needed to know what happened to them. Eventually she would go to Atlantis and start over completely from scratch. Chelsea and Dominic went off to find a shady corner to make a portal in; Alex and Daniel did the same in a different shady corner. Lyssa made her way to the platform exit, taking one last look back at each of her sisters. They smiled at each other and all stepped out of the platform.

* * *

A/N - I have some extra information, just some random stuff that didn't make it in, and about what the story was originally supposed to be like. I'll post it if anyone wants me to, but unless that happens, the series is done. Gotta say, I'm pretty happy. It's been four years after all.

Final Word Count: 37,457


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